[Spats McGee]

As far as I can tell, this law does not say, "X, Y, and Z kinds of merchants are required to accept cash." What it says is, "X, Y, and Z kinds of merchants are prohibited from accepting cash." Now, I've been known to split a few hairs before, and some of you may think that I'm doing so again, but the issue is not whether a business or private entity is required to accept cash. The issue is whether the business or p.e. can be prohibited from accepting cash.

Now, if there were a federal statute that required all businesses to accept cash (which I don't believe there is), then we'd have an argument over whether a State could countermand a federal statute. It cannot. In the absence of such a statute, we're simply left with the question of whether the State (or a county, or a municipality) can dictate the manner of payment which a merchant is allowed to accept. I haven't researched every state, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that my hunch is that every single state has statutes on acceptable and unacceptable business practices. However, I've never seen one that dictates how payment may be made.