Sad that NJ actually has to protect interracial marriage

It should feel unthinkable that there’s any chance in America people of different races would be prohibited from marrying each other. Yet that’s exactly what New Jersey just protected against.

Back in June, the Legislature passed a bill to protect interracial marriage in the event the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturns Loving v. Virginia and allows states to ban it once again. Gov. Phil Murphy just signed it into law this week.

New Jersey never had banned such unions. Yet the new law makes clear such marriages cannot be banned. Is there any serious concern the Supreme Court of the United States could overturn this case decided on the 14th Amendment?

Plenty.

Roe v. Wade gave a woman a right to seek abortion under the 14th Amendment and SCOTUS not only overturned it, Justice Clarence Thomas urged fellow justices to consider going back to re-examine other 14th Amendment cases like gay marriage and access to contraceptives.

It’s interesting to note that Thomas never specifically mentioned revisiting the ruling on interracial marriage. He’s been married to a white woman since 1987.

You might think only the Deep South was ever ignorant enough to ban interracial unions. While it was those southern states that held onto their bans right up until the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case, most states at one point banned it. New Jersey is one of only nine states that never did.

Even Pennsylvania once banned interracial marriage. So did Michigan and other states, but that was before 1888. California, now such a left-leaning progressive state, banned it until 1948.

It’s a good thing New Jersey passed this law to cement that there will be no banning of interracial marriage in the Garden State even if SCOTUS someday allows it. It’s also extremely sad that it’s even a slight possibility.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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