Bill Would Allow Earlier Mass. Liquor Sales On Sundays

Massachusetts liquor stores would be able to open their doors two hours earlier on Sundays under a bill approved by state lawmakers.

The Senate on Tuesday passed on a voice vote a bill to allow the retail sale of alcoholic beverages at 10 a.m. on Sundays.

Currently retain liquor sales are banned until noon.

The House has already approved the bill, which needs final approval in both chambers before heading to Gov. Deval Patrick's desk for his signature.

The bill is the latest effort by lawmakers to chip away at Massachusetts so-called "blue laws" some of which dated back to the Puritan leaders of the original Massachusetts Bay Colony.

A total ban on Sunday sales of alcohol at liquor stores had remained in place for two centuries in Massachusetts until it was lifted in 2003.