Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/117

 The Supreme Court of Alabama[61] in 1872 declared that the laws against intermarriage did contravene the Civil Rights Bill and the Fourteenth Amendment. But this case was expressly overruled by Green v. State,[62] in which the court, answering both of the objections, said, "Marriage is not a mere contract, but a social and domestic institution upon which are founded all society and order, to be regulated and controlled by the sovereign power for the good of the State; and the several States of the Union in the adoption of the recent Amendments to the Constitution of the United States designed to secure to citizens rights of a civil or political nature only, and did not part with their hitherto unquestioned power of regulating, within their own borders, matters of purely social and domestic concern."

There are Federal cases to support the position of the State Courts. But it is of no use to pile up citations of decisions further to establish the well-accepted doctrine that marriage is more than a civil contract, that it is a domestic institution, and that a State, by virtue of its police power, has absolute control as to who may contract marriages or live in that relation within its borders.[63]

Twenty-six States and Territories prohibit intermarriage between the white and other races. They recognize as valid such marriages when contracted in a State which allows them, unless the parties are trying to evade the laws of the State of their domicile or of their intended matrimonial residence. The States prescribe a heavier penalty for illicit intercourse between white persons and persons of another race than for the same offence between two per