John Raines John Raines John Raines (May 6, 1840, Geneva, Ontario County, New York – December 16, 1909, Canandaigua, Ontario County, New York) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He authored the 1896 Raines Law, which prohibited liquor sales on Sundays, except in hotels, which had the unintended consequence of fostering prostitution. He was born on May 6, 1840 in Geneva, Ontario County, New York, the son of Rev. John Raines (1818–1877) and Mary (Remington) Raines (1815–1889). He was educated at Canandaigua Academy and Albany Law School, from where he graduated in 1861. Admitted to the bar upon graduation,
Committee of Fourteen most Raines Law hotels had closed, but the Committee remained active until it ran out of money in 1932, when it was disbanded. Committee of Fourteen The Committee of Fourteen was founded on January 16, 1905 by members of the New York Anti-Saloon League as an association dedicated to the abolition of Raines law hotels. While blue laws banned saloons from selling alcoholic beverages on Sundays, the Raines law of 1896 permitted hotels to do so. When saloon keepers responded by creating bedrooms, which were then used for prostitution, the Committee demanded premise inspections to distinguish between legitimate hotels and