Loving v. Virginia — 1967 U.S. Supreme Court case abolishing restrictions on interracial marriage
The Supreme Court unanimously struck down all U.S. laws banning interracial marriage, ruling such laws violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
Key Facts
- Decision date
- June 12, 1967
- Court vote
- Unanimous (9–0)
- Law struck down
- Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924
- Constitutional basis
- Fourteenth Amendment (Equal Protection & Due Process)
- Conviction year
- 1959
- Later precedent use
- Cited in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) on same-sex marriage
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
In 1958, Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Loving, a woman of color, married in Washington D.C. and returned to Virginia, where their marriage violated the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. Convicted in 1959, they were sentenced to a year in prison, suspended on condition they leave Virginia for 25 years, prompting them to challenge the constitutionality of the law.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous June 1967 ruling, overturned the Lovings' convictions and struck down Virginia's Racial Integrity Act. The Court rejected Virginia's 'equal burden' argument and held that laws criminalizing marriage solely on racial distinctions violated both the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The decision immediately nullified all remaining state laws prohibiting interracial marriage across the United States. It became a foundational civil rights precedent, later cited in federal court rulings against same-sex marriage bans, including the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, broadening the constitutional right to marry.