History 3457/Children’s Studies 3120
Loving
28 February 2013
I. Marriage in the United States
1. Definitions & Federalism (colonial heritage; religious disestablishment and origins of
civil marriage; coverture & legal arrangements within marriage; assumption of permanence—
difficulty of divorce, North Dakota exception, then emergence of Nevada as divorce capital)
2. The Federal Role (United States as outlier—no national marriage laws; territories &
campaign against polygamy1862 law against polygamy in the territories, Supreme Court
upholds Edmunds-Tucker Act; policy changes: Immigration Act and issue of family unity; Social
Security & importance of federal benefits; expanded federal taxation; post-World War II
changesstress on nuclear family, but also growing divorce liberalization)
3. The Supreme Court (early precedents: Maynard v. Hillmarriage as a fundamental
right; marriage & childrearing in the Meyer case; Skinner and linkage between marriage and
procreation)
II. Loving & Its Effects
1. Interracial Bans & “Traditional” Marriage (colonial bans on interracial marriage;
marriage and slavery; Civil War period and slight retreat from bans; social discrimination &
post-Civil War era: Pace v. Alabama (1883); Progressive culture—Jack Johnson, antimiscegenation amendments, Massachusetts law change)
2. Path to Loving (postwar changes & Perez v. Sharp; slow movement against state-level
bans; Supreme Court avoidance in Naim v. Naim; clash between public opinion & constitutional
normswhy didn’t advocates seek to reinstate bans?; isolation of South; Griswold and
marriage; Loving decision)
3. Beyond Loving (slow shift in public opinion; Gallup shift in early 1990s, but also 2000
Alabama vote; Supreme Court and marriage: Zablocki v. Redhail (parents with child support
obligations), Turner v. Saffley (prisoners))