Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)

Loving v. Virginia is number 11 on the list of most cited Supreme Court decisions.In its opinion, the US Supreme Court declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statutes unconstitutional. Its effect was to end all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.Mildred and Richard Perry Loving left Virginia to marry in the District of Columbia in June, 1958. They left Virginia to avoid the Racial Integrity Act, a Virginia law banning marriages between any white person and any non-white person. Upon returning to Virginia, they were charged with violation of the ban. The police caught them sleeping in their bed. The raid was executed in the hopes of finding them in the act of sex which was also a crime.In the couple's defense, Mrs. Loving pointed to a marriage certificate on the wall in their bedroom. This turned out to be the evidence the police needed for a criminal charge, because it proved they were indeed married.Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)