Loving v. Virginia
United States Supreme Court
388 U.S. 1 (1967)
Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving (defendants), an interracial couple, married in the District of Columbia in 1958 and moved to Virginia (plaintiff), which banned interracial marriage; indicted for violating that law, they pleaded guilty and received a suspended one-year sentence conditioned on leaving Virginia and not returning together for 25 years. The Lovings sued to vacate the judgment as violating the Fourteenth Amendment, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the law and their convictions, and they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Whether a state may enact a statute that prevents marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classification without violating the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.