ISBN:  Unavailable

Category: Law / Family Law / Marriage

Page count: 16

Prohibitions against miscegenation can be referenced back to the colonial times in American history and first appear in the Virginia colony. As history progressed, so did miscegenation prohibitions with approximately forty states. While twenty three states have repealed their state statutes in favor of miscegenation marriage, seventeen states hold steadfast to their miscegenation statutes.Constitutional provisions  in six of those seventeen states either forbid the passage of laws validating miscegenation marriages, or making them not legally valid (void ab initio).  <br><br>Some states have expanded their statute general provisions to include other ethnic groups other than the Caucasians and African-Americans.This form of marital prohibition was challenged in McLaughlin v. Florida 379 U.S. 184 (1964), and Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), and ended miscegenation marriage restrictions  by overturning Pace v. Alabama, 106 U.S. 583 (1883) declared Alabama’s miscegenation state statute in violation to the U.S. Constitution, in which later assisted with Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, 440 Mass. 309 (2003) and the right for “same-sex marriage”.<br>