Perez v. Sharp (1948)
In 1948, Andrea Perez, a white woman, and Sylvester Davis, an African American man, were denied a marriage license under California’s anti-miscegenation statute. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Perez couple by a narrow margin, 4-3, deeming anti-miscegenation legislation unreasonable and unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. With the Perez v. Sharp case, California became the first state to repeal its anti-miscegenation laws following the Pace decision.
[Click here to see the court proceedings.]
[Click here to see the court proceedings.]
"If the right to marry is a fundamental right, then it must be conceded that an infringement of that right by means of a racial restriction is an unlawful infringement of one's liberty" (Wallenstein 197).
- Justice Jesse Carter, California Supreme Court Court (1948)
- Justice Jesse Carter, California Supreme Court Court (1948)