John Caragozian writes in the Daily Journal about Daniel Marshall, “the sole counsel on a long-shot case that helped change American history.”
The case is Perez v. Sharp (1948) 32 Cal.2d 711, where a 4-3 California Supreme Court held to be unconstitutional Civil Code statutes prohibiting “[a]ll marriages of white persons with negroes, Mongolians, members of the Malay race, or mulattoes.” The opinion came almost 20 years before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state statutes that banned inter-racial marriages. (Loving v. Virginia (1967) 388 U.S. 1.)
Caragozian reports that the California Supreme Court Historical Society will present a CLE program on the Perez case in November. (He and I are both Society board members.)
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