UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES COLLEGE OF LAW

Constitutional Law – Law 121

Atty. Dante Gatmaytan

Judicial Review of Antimiscegenation Laws: The Long Road to Loving

Rachel F. Moran
Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race and Romance – pp. 76-100

Year Case State Held

1872 Burns v. State Alabama The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the ban on
interracial marriages was unlawful. Citing the Civil
Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment, the
court treated marriage as a contract in which blacks had
every right to make.

The decision rejected the distinction between political

and social equality as justification for the ban, as well
as the argument that the legislature had satisfied the
requirement of equal treatment of equal treatment by
imposing equal sanctions between races.
1877 Green v. State Alabama The Congress did not intend the Civil Rights Act to
overturn any antimiscegenation laws. The decision
explicitly adopted the distinction between political and
social equality in upholding the restrictions on
intermarriage.

According to the court, the law was racially neutral as

long as blacks and whites suffered comparable
punishment.

The court saw proper marital choices a vital to the

state’s future. It re-characterized marriage as an
instrument of public good, but not an endorsement of
political equality at the altar. The antimiscegenation
laws were a way to avoid the disruption of a segregated
social order.
1881 Pace v. State Alabama The Alabama Supreme Court expanded on Green by
allowing the state to punish interracial fornication and
adultery more severely than an intraracial couple.
Interracial adultery mean incarceration for 2 to 7 years,
while the crime committed intraracially was punished
only by a fine with the maximum incarceration time at
2 years. The court concluded that the law did not
discriminate against races as it was the offense being
punished, and not the person.
 UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES COLLEGE OF LAW
Constitutional Law – Law 121
Atty. Dante Gatmaytan

1882 Pace v. U.S.

Alabama Supreme
Court