The owners of the Crown Kosher Super Market of Massachusetts were Orthodox Jews whose religion forbids them to shop or sell from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday and requires them to eat only kosher food, were keeping their store open on Sunday at times when it was against the Massachusetts state law.

The lawsuit was in a Federal District Court to make certain sections of the Massachusetts Sunday Closing Laws unconstitutional.

"In general, Sunday laws protect the public by guaranteeing one day in seven to provide a period of rest and quiet.

Also on the issue of free exercise of religion they stated: "Secondly, appellees Orthodox Jewish customers allege that, because their religious beliefs forbid their shopping on the Jewish Sabbath, the statutes' effect is to deprive them, from Friday afternoon until Monday of each week, of the opportunity to purchase the kosher food sanctioned by their faith.

In the 1977 case Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, the court held that firing an employee who observed a seventh-day sabbath did not constitute religious discrimination as prohibited by Civil Rights Act of 1964 § Title VII—equal employment opportunity