People v. Acme Markets, Inc.

Defendants appeal from orders of the Erie County Court affirming judgments of conviction under the Sunday sales law. (General Business Law, § 9.) The principal issue, as we would frame it, is whether, with a history of disuse and absent a policy of general enforcement, prosecution at the instance of an interest group for its private purposes constitutes discrimination violative of the equal protection clauses of the Federal and State Constitutions. We think so and, accordingly, would reverse on that ground alone.

The defendants are food supermarkets located in Erie County. The complainant in…