Roldan v. Los Angeles County

Roldan v. Los Angeles County, {{law report|129|Cal. App.|267}}, 18 P.2d 706, was a 1933 court case in California confirming that the state's anti-miscegenation laws at the time did not bar the marriage of a Filipino and a white person.{{harvnb|Moran|2003|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=oFUSEAWBXlAC&pg=PA206 206]}} However, the precedent lasted barely a week before the law was specifically amended to illegalize such marriages.

Background

The case involved a Filipino American man, Salvador Roldan, engaged to a white British woman, Marjorie Rogers.{{harvnb|Baldoz|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qtn31sdI4j8C&pg=PA98 98]}} Roldan was an Ilocano from northern Luzon.{{harvnb|Gross|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FhYybx1XPqQC&pg=PA250 250]}} Since 1880, California Civil Code Section 60 had prohibited marriages between white persons and "negros", "mulattos", or "Mongolians", but there was confusion over whether Filipinos were part of that last category.{{harvnb|Min|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5PSYZMs8TzEC&pg=PA189 189]}} California Attorney General Ulysses S. Webb had issued an advisory opinion in 1926 that Filipinos were part of the "Mongolian race".{{harvnb|Gross|2008|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FhYybx1XPqQC&pg=PA249 249]}} In 1930, a court had denied another Filipino man, Tony Moreno, permission to marry his white fiancée and ruled that Filipinos and other "Malayans" were part of the "Mongolian race" and thus not eligible to marry whites.{{citation|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/371252902.html?dids=371252902:371252902&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Feb+26%2C+1930&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=FILIPINO-WHITE+UNIONS+BARRED&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120712131004/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/371252902.html?dids=371252902:371252902&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Feb+26,+1930&author=&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=FILIPINO-WHITE+UNIONS+BARRED&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 12, 2012|periodical=Los Angeles Times|date=1930-02-26|access-date=2011-10-01|title=Filipino-White Unions Barred; Judge Rules Malayans Part of Mongolian Race; Change in Opinion on Brown People Cited in Court Decision; May Affect Hundred Couples Already Wed}}

However, the following year, Judge Walter Guerin granted a marriage licence for Gavino Visco to marry Ruth M. Salas. The groom was a Filipino of Spanish ancestry, while the bride was an indigenous Mexican; however, Guerin stated that he would have granted the licence even if the bride were white. In August 1931, Roldan and Rogers's application for a marriage licence was rejected by the Los Angeles County clerk. The couple petitioned for a writ of mandate with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Judge Walter Gates granted the writ.{{harvnb|Baldoz|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qtn31sdI4j8C&pg=PA99 99]}}

Appeals

County counsels L. E. Lampton and Everett Mattoon appealed Gates' decision to the California Court of Appeal for the Second District. Webb, as well as Associate Attorney General Frank English, filed amici briefs on behalf of Lampton and Mattoon. While the case was being heard, other counties in California continued to refuse to issue marriage licences to Filipino-white couples. The appellate court's decision hinged on examination of the theories of racial anthropology current in the late 19th century when the law was drafted, in an effort to discern the legislative intent. County officials cited the work of Aleš Hrdlička in arguing that Filipinos were indeed part of the "Mongolian race". However, Justice T. Archbald, who wrote the opinion in the case, disagreed, stating that J. F. Blumenbach's taxonomy, which classified "Malays" and "Mongolians" separately, was the dominant theory through the early 20th century. He also pointed out that the term "Mongolians" in popular opinion was meant principally to apply to the Chinese, in reaction to the late 19th century influx of Chinese immigrants.{{harvnb|Baldoz|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qtn31sdI4j8C&pg=PA100 100]}} The court thus concluded that Filipinos were members of the "Malay race" and not the "Mongoloid race", finding Roldan and Rogers' marriage legal.

County officials appealed the case again to the Supreme Court of California in 1933. On March 27, 1933, the Supreme Court announced that it would not review the case, effectively upholding the appellate court's decision. Soon after that announcement, the California State Legislature voted to amend Civil Code Section 60 to ensure that the law against interracial marriage also covered "members of the Malay race".{{harvnb|Tragen|1944}}, citing Cal. Stats. 1933, p. 561. California Governor James Rolph signed the amendment into law on April 5, 1933.{{harvnb|Baldoz|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qtn31sdI4j8C&pg=PA101 101]}}

Notes

Bibliography

{{citation|first=Rick|last=Baldoz|title=The third Asiatic invasion: empire and migration in Filipino America, 1898–1946|publisher=NYU Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-8147-9108-0}}
{{citation|first=Ariela Julie|last=Gross|title=What blood won't tell: a history of race on trial in America|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-674-03130-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/whatbloodwonttel00gros}}
{{citation|first=Pyong-Gap|last=Min|title=Asian Americans: Contemporary Trends and Issues|publisher=Pine Forge Press|year=2006|isbn=978-1-4129-0556-5}}
{{citation|first=Rachel F.|last=Moran|title=Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race and Romance|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-226-53663-7}}
{{citation|title=Statutory Prohibitions against Interracial Marriage|first=Irving G.|last=Tragen|journal=California Law Review|volume=32|issue=3|date=September 1944|pages=269–280|doi=10.2307/3476961|jstor=3476961|url=https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3614&context=californialawreview}}