Fargo Man Behind Petition To Allow North Dakota Stores To Open Early on Sunday

Brandon Medenwald is holding a petition to repeal the blue law of Sunday morning shopping

FARGO, ND., — One local organizer is hoping to repeal North Dakota’s ban on Sunday morning shopping one petition at a time.

Brandon Medenwald is leading the efforts to change the North Dakota Century Code and hopes to soon begin collecting signatures to get the issue before voters.

Right now, retail stores in the state are not allowed to open until noon on Sunday.

Lawmakers wanted to repeal the Sunday law during the last legislative session, but failed by a very slim margin.

Medenwald says it shouldn’t be up to the government to decide when stores can open or not.

“North Dakota doesn’t tell farmers when to farm and it doesn’t tell hospitals when they can practice their medicine and it doesn’t tell restaurants when they can feed people. If you’re one of the unfortunate souls that owns a retail business the state does tell you when you can be open and when you can’t. I believe that the people should be able to choose for themselves,” said Brandon Medenwald.

Supporters will need to collect more than 13-thousand signatures.

Medenwald says they’ll likely aim to get the repeal on the November 2018 ballot.