Loving v. Virginia

Loving v. Virginia was the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down state bans on interracial marriage as unconstitutional.

Equal Protection Clause: The Fourteenth Amendment provision requiring states to provide equal protection of the laws. The Court held Virginia’s racial marriage restrictions violated this constitutional guarantee.
Mildred and Richard Loving: The Virginia couple whose marriage and criminal convictions led to Loving v. Virginia. Their 1958 marriage and subsequent prosecution created the case before the Court.
Anti-miscegenation laws: Laws prohibiting marriage or sexual relations between people classified as belonging to different races. Loving invalidated the remaining state marriage bans of this kind.
Mildred Loving: An African American and Rappahannock woman whose marriage to Richard Loving challenged Virginia’s interracial-marriage ban. She joined the challenge that led to the Supreme Court ruling.
Due Process Clause: The Fourteenth Amendment provision barring states from depriving people of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The Court treated the freedom to marry as a liberty protected against state interference.
Racial Integrity Act of 1924: A Virginia law that prohibited interracial marriage and enforced racial classifications in the state. It supplied the legal basis for the Lovings’ conviction.
Interracial marriage in the United States: Marriage between spouses classified as belonging to different racial groups in the United States. The decision removed state legal barriers to these marriages nationwide.
Richard Loving: A white Virginia construction worker whose marriage to Mildred Loving was prosecuted under state law. His conviction, alongside Mildred’s, was appealed to the Supreme Court.
Strict scrutiny: The most demanding standard of judicial review, requiring a compelling government interest and narrow tailoring. The opinion rejected racial classifications without relying on a separate tier of scrutiny.
Caroline County, Virginia: A county in Virginia where the Lovings lived and were prosecuted for interracial marriage. Local enforcement there turned Virginia’s marriage ban into a criminal case.

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