• Blue laws can prohibit the sale of alcohol on Sunday.drinking girl image by Daria Miroshnikova from Fotolia.com
  
  Blue laws, or Sunday closing laws, came to America with the Puritan settlers and were once very common. They forbade the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday. Except for the period of national prohibition, when alcohol sales were forbidden in the whole country, the regulation of alcohol sales has always been the prerogative of each state.
  
  

History

• Kansas has a strong history of controlling alcohol sales. The state constitution completely forbade the sale of alcohol from 1880 to 1948. The enforcement of this state prohibition varied over the years. Sometimes illegal alcohol was readily available, while at other times the state was relatively dry. In the 1940s the Kansas attorney general enforced the state prohibition law, which resulted in a constitutional amendment passed by the voters in 1948. The new amendment authorized the Kansas Legislature to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages.
  
  

Sunday Closing

• In 1948 the Kansas Legislature allowed alcohol to be sold in counties that had ratified the constitutional amendment. The state Legislature also allowed the counties to decide whether alcohol could be sold on Sundays. Today the rules vary throughout the state, with some counties allowing Sunday sales and some prohibiting them.
  
  

Enforcement

• Kansas liquor laws are enforced by the Kansas Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which licenses all businesses that sell alcohol in the state. To maintain a license the business has to comply with all regulations on opening times. The state limits opening hours from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Monday through Saturday. On Sunday the state limits opening hours from noon. to 8 p.m. Counties have the option of forbidding Sunday openings, but cannot expand the state hours limitations.