It is imperative to acknowledge the impact that this case has on many people now. More than seven percent of the 59 million married couples in the United States are interracial. I would say that the last name of Richard Loving is very ironic in this case. According to the Virginia antimiscengenation laws, they banned interracial marriage and sometimes sex between members of two different races. This was solely a case based on racial discrimination. This case violated the fourteenth amendment which gives equal protection to all people. In recent days we would look at this case as totallly ridiculous and we would never deny the right to marriage for interracial couples. Our issue that is posed to us now is the case of gay marriage. I guarantee that in our lifetime we will see the result of that case in a Supreme Court decision.
Facts of the Case:
In 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia. The Lovings returned to Virginia shortly thereafter. The couple was then charged with violating the state's antimiscegenation statute, which banned inter-racial marriages. The Lovings were found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail (the trial judge agreed to suspend the sentence if the Lovings would leave Virginia and not return for 25 years).
Question:
Did Virginia's antimiscegenation law violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Conclusion:
Yes. In a unanimous decision, the Court held that distinctions drawn according to race were generally "odious to a free people" and were subject to "the most rigid scrutiny" under the Equal Protection Clause. The Virginia law, the Court found, had no legitimate purpose "independent of invidious racial discrimination." The Court rejected the state's argument that the statute was legitimate because it applied equally to both blacks and whites and found that racial classifications were not subject to a "rational purpose" test under the Fourteenth Amendment.
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