Loving V. Virginia Case Study

Loving v. Virginia was a case in 1967 about invalidating laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The case was argued in April of 1967 and decided later in June. Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, lived in Caroline County, Virginia. Since there was a state law prohibiting interracial marriage in Virginia, they got married in Washington DC in 1958. This anti-miscegenation law was called “Racial Integrity Act of 1924”. A few weeks after they returned to Virginia, they were arrested for violating the state law against interracial marriage. Richard was held in jail for only one night, while Mildred spent several days there, and at the time she was pregnant. During their trial, The Lovings pleaded guilty to breaking the …show more content…
On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court agreed unanimously in favor of the Lovings, ending Virginia's law and allowing the Lovings to return to Virginia legally, and also ending the ban on interracial marriages in other states. The Supreme Court stated that Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law violated both the Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion for the court. He said that “marriage is a basic civil right and to deny this right due to race is directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment and deprives all citizens liberty without due process of law”. This decision was a win for all Americans, except for those who were racists. This case was controversial at the time because some people still discriminated against black people in society, even though they were given complete equality under the law. The Loving v. Virginia case ruling allowed blacks and whites to gain a new social right and it changed the society of America