Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law Tuesday to protect the right of a person to marry or enter into a civil union with a person of any race. The law to protect interracial marriage in New Jersey comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the landmark Roe v. Wade case overturned abortion rights for women, which raised concerns about other seemingly long-settled laws.
“In June of 2022, the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority erased a woman’s long-held constitutional right to an abortion and made clear that they do not value the rights of women to make their own decisions about their bodies,” Murphy said. “As our country faces an era of uncertainty regarding the basic principles of equality and personal freedom, it is critical that we protect interracial marriage in New Jersey statutory law.”
The Supreme Court in 1967 ruled that the federal Constitution prohibits state laws that ban interracial marriage. According to the Pew Research Institute, interracial marriages accounted for 3% in 1967 and had grown to 19% in 2019.
