Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/100

 races. Georgia, probably fearing that some legislature might attempt to enact such measures, in its Constitutions of 1868[6] and 1877[7] had this general statement: "The social status of the citizen shall never be the subject of legislation." It would seem, on first thought, that this requirement would defeat its own purpose. If marriage is a social status and if legislation as to the social status of the citizen is forever prohibited, how can a law prohibiting intermarriage be constitutional? In a test case[8] that arose in 1869 the Supreme Court of the State very neatly explained away this apparently embarrassing situation by saying, in effect, that the clause in the Constitution applied only to future legislation, and it did not affect the law prohibiting intermarriage then in force. After quoting that clause in the Constitution, the court went on to say: "In so far as the marriage relation is connected with the social status, the very reverse is true. That section of the Constitution forever prohibits legislation of any character regulating or interfering with the social status. It leaves social rights and status where it finds them. It prohibits the legislature from repealing any laws in existence, which protect persons in the free regulation among themselves of matters properly termed social, and it also prohibits the enactment of any new laws on that subject in the future." The Constitution of Alabama[9] of 1901 provides against possible meddling by the legislature with domestic relations in more outspoken terms: "The legislature shall never pass any law to authorize or legalize any marriage between any white person and a Negro or descendant of a Negro."