Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Statutes that forbid the contracting of marriage between persons of different races are unconstitutional,1 as are statutes that penalize interracial cohabitation.2 Nor may a court deny custody of a child based on a parent’s remarriage to a person of another race and the presumed “best interests of the child” to be free from the prejudice and stigmatization that might result.3

Footnotes

1

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967).

2

McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184 (1964).

3

Palmore v. Sidoti, 466 U.S. 429 (1984).