Roldan

Solvador Roldan applied to the county clerk of Los Angeles County for a license to wed a woman of Caucasian descent and was refused such license. On a hearing of his application before the superior court for a writ to compel the issuance thereof he was found to be a “Filipino”, viz., “an Illocano, 'born in the Philippine Islands of Filipino progenitors in whose blood was co-mingled a strain of Spanish”, and not a Mongolian. From a judgment making the alternative writ of mandate permanent the defendants have appealed.

Section 69 of the Civil Code, relating to marriage licenses, was amended in 1880 (Code Amendments, 1880, p. 3) to prohibit the issuance of a license authorizing the marriage of a white person “with a . . . Mongolian”. Section 60 of the Civil Code was amended in 1905 (Stats. 1905, p. 554) by adding “Mongolians” to the classes whose marriage with a “white” was made “illegal and void”. The sole question involved in this appeal is whether or not the legislature in 1880 and 1905 meant to include Filipinos in its use of the word “Mongolian”.

We find no dissent to the statement that the Filipino is included among the Malays, although since the time of Huxley, at least,…