McLaughlin v. Florida

McLaughlin v. Florida
Argued October 13–14, 1964
Decided December 7, 1964
Full case nameMcLaughlin, et al. v. Florida
Citations379 U.S. 184 (more)
85 S. Ct. 283; 13 L. Ed. 2d 222; 1964 U.S. LEXIS 63
Case history
PriorDefendants convicted, Fl Sup Ct affirmed. Appeal from the Supreme Court of Florida
SubsequentConvictions set aside
Holding
Florida statute prohibits an unmarried interracial couple from habitually living in and occupying the same room in the nighttime. The same conduct when engaged in by members of the same race, is not prohibited. This is in violation of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th Amendment and is, therefore, unconstitutional.
Court membership
Chief Justice
Earl Warren
Associate Justices
Hugo Black · William O. Douglas
Tom C. Clark · John M. Harlan II
William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart
Byron White · Arthur Goldberg
Case opinions
MajorityWhite, joined by Warren, Black, Clark, Harlan, Brennan, Goldberg
ConcurrenceHarlan
ConcurrenceStewart (in judgment), joined by Douglas
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV; Fla. Stat. § 798.05
This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings
Pace v. Alabama (1883) (in part)

McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184 (1964), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a cohabitation law of Florida, part of the state's anti-miscegenation laws, was unconstitutional.[1] The law prohibited habitual cohabitation by two unmarried people of opposite sex, if one was black and the other was white. The decision overturned Pace v. Alabama (1883),[2] which had declared such statutes constitutional. It did not overturn the related Florida statute that prohibited interracial marriage between whites and blacks. Such laws were declared unconstitutional in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia.[3]

  1. ^ McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184 (1964). Public domain This article incorporates public domain material from this U.S government document.
  2. ^ Pace v. Alabama, 106 U.S. 583 (1883).
  3. ^ Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967).