McLaughlin v. Florida 379 U.S. 184Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1964), was a case in which the
United States Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal judiciary. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate...
ruled that a cohabitation law of Florida, part of the state's
anti-miscegenation lawsAnti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage and sometimes sex between members of two different races. In the United States, interracial marriage, cohabitation and sex have since 1863 been termed "miscegenation." Contemporary usage of the...
, was unconstitutional. The law prohibited habitual cohabitation by two unmarried people of opposite sex, if one is black, and the other, white.
The court thereby overturned
Pace v. AlabamaPace v. Alabama, 106 U.S. 583 , was a case in which the United States Supreme Court affirmed that Alabama's anti-miscegenation statute was constitutional. This ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1964 in McLaughlin v. Florida and in 1967 in Loving v...
(1883), which had declared such statutes constitutional. It did not however, overturn the related Florida statute which prohibited
interracial marriageInterracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry, often creating multiracial children. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain...
between whites and blacks.
McLaughlin v. Florida 379 U.S. 184Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1964), was a case in which the
United States Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal judiciary. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate...
ruled that a cohabitation law of Florida, part of the state's
anti-miscegenation lawsAnti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage and sometimes sex between members of two different races. In the United States, interracial marriage, cohabitation and sex have since 1863 been termed "miscegenation." Contemporary usage of the...
, was unconstitutional. The law prohibited habitual cohabitation by two unmarried people of opposite sex, if one is black, and the other, white.
The court thereby overturned
Pace v. AlabamaPace v. Alabama, 106 U.S. 583 , was a case in which the United States Supreme Court affirmed that Alabama's anti-miscegenation statute was constitutional. This ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1964 in McLaughlin v. Florida and in 1967 in Loving v...
(1883), which had declared such statutes constitutional. It did not however, overturn the related Florida statute which prohibited
interracial marriageInterracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry, often creating multiracial children. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain...
between whites and blacks. These laws were declared unconstitutional in 1967 in
Loving v. VirginiaLoving v. Virginia, , was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, by a 9-0 vote, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v...
.
Facts
Section 798.05 of
FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
statutes read:
Any negro man and white woman, or any white man and negro woman, who are not married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.
This law was a part of the
AdulteryAdultery is referred to as extramarital sex, philandery, or infidelity, but does not include fornication. The term "adultery" for many people carries a moral or religious association, while the term "extramarital sex" is morally or judgmentally neutral....
and
FornicationFornication is a term which typically refers to voluntary, illicit sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other. The origin of the word derives from Latin. The word fornix means "an archway" or "vault" and it became a common euphemism for a brothel as prostitutes could be solicited...
laws of Florida, which were penalized by Chapter 798. While all the other sections of this chapter required proof that sexual intercourse took place, sec 798.05 required only cohabitation. Moreover, the law specifically prohibits a couple in which
one is white and the other is black. It did
not apply where one was black, and the other, say, of
Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
descent. As such it was part of Florida's
anti-miscegenation lawsAnti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage and sometimes sex between members of two different races. In the United States, interracial marriage, cohabitation and sex have since 1863 been termed "miscegenation." Contemporary usage of the...
, which prohibited marriage, cohabitation and extramarital sex between whites and blacks. Like all such state laws, it only concerned itself with relationships between whites and non-whites. Similar
anti-miscegenation lawsAnti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage and sometimes sex between members of two different races. In the United States, interracial marriage, cohabitation and sex have since 1863 been termed "miscegenation." Contemporary usage of the...
were enforced in many states into the 1960s, and by all Southern states until 1967, when all remaining state bans on
interracial marriageInterracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry, often creating multiracial children. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain...
between whites and non-whites were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in
Loving v. VirginiaLoving v. Virginia, , was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, by a 9-0 vote, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v...
.
Result
The Supreme Court held that the law, because it made a special case for couples of these two specific races, bore "heavier burden of justification." Florida had not demonstrated any reason that made such race-specific prohibition necessary. So, the law was held unconstitutional.
That a general evil will be partially corrected may at times, and without more, serve to justify the limited application of a criminal law; but legislative discretion to employ the piecemeal approach stops short of permitting a State to narrow statutory coverage to focus on a racial group.
The Court, however, decided not to look at the statute prohibiting marriage between whites and blacks that was also part of
FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
's
anti-miscegenation lawsAnti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage and sometimes sex between members of two different races. In the United States, interracial marriage, cohabitation and sex have since 1863 been termed "miscegenation." Contemporary usage of the...
(Fl. St. Ann. 741.11), even though though the state had claimed that Sec 798.05 was ancillary to it. Such state laws prohibiting marriage between whites and non-whites were later declared unconstitutional in
Loving v. VirginiaLoving v. Virginia, , was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, by a 9-0 vote, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v...
.
Justice HarlanJohn Marshall Harlan was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1955 to 1971. His namesake was his grandfather John Marshall Harlan, another associate justice who served from 1877 to 1911.Harlan was a student at Upper Canada College and Appleby College and...
, in his concurrence, emphasized the "heavier burden" requirement of
Justice WhiteByron Raymond "Whizzer" White won fame both as a football running back and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Appointed to the court by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, he served until his retirement in 1993...
, by stating that the law should pass a "necessity test," which is very stringent, and is applied to free speech cases.
Justices
StewartPotter Stewart was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. On the Court, he made major contributions to criminal justice reform, civil rights, access to the courts, and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, among other areas.-Education:Stewart was born in Jackson, Michigan,...
and
DouglasWilliam Orville Douglas was a United States Supreme Court Associate Justice. With a term lasting 36 years and 209 days, he is the longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court...
refused to accept that there
could be any such "overriding statutory purpose," which would require such discrimination based on skin color. Stewart wrote "
We deal here with a criminal law which imposes criminal punishment. And I think it is simply not possible for a state law to be valid under our Constitution which makes the criminality of an act depend upon the race of the actor. Discrimination of that kind is invidious per seper se :*A Latin phrase used in English arguments for "by itself" or "by themselves"It also is used in law:*Illegal per se, the legal usage of "per se" in criminal and anti-trust law...
."
See also
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 379
- Pace v. Alabama
Pace v. Alabama, 106 U.S. 583 , was a case in which the United States Supreme Court affirmed that Alabama's anti-miscegenation statute was constitutional. This ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1964 in McLaughlin v. Florida and in 1967 in Loving v...
- Perez v. Sharp
In 1948, in the case Perez v. Sharp, also known as Perez v. Lippold and Perez v. Moroney, the Supreme Court of California recognized that interracial bans on marriage violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution....
- Loving v. Virginia
Loving v. Virginia, , was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, by a 9-0 vote, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v...
- anti-miscegenation laws
Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that banned interracial marriage and sometimes sex between members of two different races. In the United States, interracial marriage, cohabitation and sex have since 1863 been termed "miscegenation." Contemporary usage of the...