WARREN, C.J., Opinion of the Court SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES ________________________________________ 388 U.S. 1 Loving v. Virginia APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA ________________________________________ No. 395 Argued: April 10, 1967 — Decided: June 12, 1967 ________________________________________ MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents a constitutional question never addressed by this Court: whether a statutory scheme adopted by the State of Virginia to prevent marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classifications violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. For reasons which seem to us to reflect the central meaning of those constitutional commands, we conclude that these statutes cannot stand consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment. In June, 1958, two residents of Virginia, Mildred Jeter, a Negro woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, were married in the District of Columbia pursuant to its laws. Shortly after their marriage, the Lovings returned to Virginia and established their marital abode in Caroline County. At the October Term, 1958, of the Circuit Court of Caroline County, a grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia’s ban on interracial marriages. On January 6, … Continue reading (1967) Loving v. Virginia