Loving Vs. Virginia Case Study

The United States of America was founded as a secular sanctuary for ideals like freedom, equality, and tolerance – few will argue against that. Over its history American culture has radically evolved as it strived to meet the ideals its nation was based upon, making changes like ending slavery and providing legal equality for women and minorities, changes that at the time seemed absurd but today are unquestionable merits that define what an “American” is. The quest to reach the ultimate utopian society continues today as true Americans fight the evils of ignorance, stubborn bigotry and the fear to change that still manifest themselves in a large portion of U.S. citizens, preventing this nation from moving forward. One of the outstanding minorities still left to be granted the ideals of freedom, equality, and tolerance are homosexuals trying to obtain the right to marry the person they want to spend the rest of their life with, regardless of gender. Same-sex marriages should be recognized in the eyes of the U.S. government in accordance with its responsibility to provide all American citizens equal freedoms.

Before the Civil Rights Movement, everything was segregated and one race was viewed as more powerful than all the other races. If there were interracial couples before the movement, the power of the institutions would easily punish them and justified it through religion and supremacy (Westlaw, 2015). I believe interracial couples are key to becoming a society that is more open minded and diverse. If people saw that we have many more commonalities than differences, than they would be more open to having a diverse community. Implications for the target group after this law was overruled was another step towards equality between races. All races were now free to marry outside their race without being arrested and kicked out of their homes. It is baffling to think about the extent some people would go through to destroy a happy couple because their skin color does not match. I believe our country has come a long way since Loving v Virginia, but we still have improvements to make to somehow end racism. Loving v Virginia is important because it implies that all races are equal. Before this ruling, it was looked down upon for a Caucasian to marry outside their race since they were the “superior” race, but now it is much more common than anyone would have figured it would be 50+ years ago. Racial color blindness is key when discussing Loving v Virginia and interracial marriages. If someone were to say they do not see color, then it would completely disregard the struggle that the Loving couple (and other interracial couples) faced. Just like we discussed in class, racial color blindness tends to disregard what African Americans have gone through and ignores institutional racism. It is very easy for people who have not been discriminated against to say they do not see color, I believe these people tend to forget about institutional racism since it does not affect them (Mulder,

On July 11, 1958 a couple of hours after midnight, Richard Loving a white man and Mildred Loving an African American woman were awakened to the presence of three officers in their bedroom. One of the three officers demanded from Richard to identify the woman next to him. Mildred, full of fear, told the officers that she was his wife, while Richard pointed to the marriage license on the wall. The couple was then charged and later found guilty in violation of the state's anti-miscegenation statute.

Virginia do all this, but it also had some many unforeseen impacts in the future, as well. For example, similar anti-miscegenation laws in about 15 other states were eventually overturned like Virginia’s marriage ban. In the case Goodridge v. Department of Public Health in the November of 2003, a similar case to Loving v. Virginia, the restrictions on marriage were argued yet again. However, instead of interracial marriage being the problem, it was same-sex partners who were unable to wed. Like the case for the Lovings, the Supreme Court eventually ruled against the ban on members of the LGBTQ community marrying, as it was also deemed

The Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia (1967) resulted in the striking down of state laws that prohibited whites and African Americans from marrying. Mildred Loving, one of the parties in the case, issued a statement on the fortieth-anniversary of her case in which she urged that same-sex couples be allowed to marry.

The percentage of the white male population with a high school diploma in 1964 was 27.6%, while only 14.6% of black males had a high school diploma. This was because black people had a harder time getting into schools. Judgment because of a persons race should not be allowed, so people decided to take it to court. Not to mention, Supreme Court cases have really driven people's need and want for civil rights: Loving v. Virginia (1967), Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg (1971), Bakke v. University of California (1978).

The history of LGBTQIA+ rights in the United States is long and complicated. The identities within the LGBTQIA+ community that are accepted have shifted over the years as the majority of the population comes to understand some identities to be commonplace and struggles to understand others. However, the gaining of rights and acceptance by the LGBTQIA+ community has nearly always been tied to legal recognition. Lawrence v. Texas questions whether or not a Texas statute that bans homosexual sodomy is constitutional. Although LGBTQIA+ rights issues are controversial, the statute that convicted John Lawrence and Tyson Garner for having private, consensual gay sex as well as the means of conviction are clearly unconstitutional on several grounds,

With the growing racial unrest sweeping the U.S., and particularly the South in the 1960s, The Supreme Court decided that the protections of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution applied equally to blacks and the whites that loved them. The Loving vs. Virginia case ended the abominable assumption that the state has a right to intrude upon the private lives and affections of its citizens, to the point of dictating to them who they were allowed to love.

Richard and Mildred Loving were arrested in 1959 for violating South Carolina’s anti-miscegenation statue, barring interracial marriage between people of color and whites. The Lovings, who had to travel hundreds of miles to Washington DC to legally wed in an attempt to appease South Carolina law, were charged and found guilty for "cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth" (Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967). As part of their sentence, the Lovings were forced to leave the state of South Carolina and relocate in Washington D.C. After experiencing the difficulties of living so far away from their friends and family, Mildred Loving wrote to the American Civil Liberties Union who ultimately set the legal proceedings under the argument that the

Facts of the case: this was a landmark civil rights case that overturned laws that prohibited interracial marriage. The case involved a black woman named Mildred Loving and a white man Richard Loving, who was sentenced to prison in the state of Virginia for getting married. It was a crime because the marriage of the two was a violation of the state’s anti-miscegenation law, which was called the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The couple got married in Washington, DC and upon their return they were indicted for unlawful cohabitation and placed in jail. Mildred Loving wrote a letter to the Attorney General; who was Robert F. Kennedy for assistance and in return she was referred to the ACLU who represented the couple in the case. The Supreme Court governed that Virginia’s bans on interracial marriages were considered unconstitutional. The court found that the anti-miscegenation laws did not infringe on the Equal Protection Clause

In the summer of 2015 the U.S supreme court ruled in favor to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 countries in the United States. This all occurred because of the Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) case. This very important case involved “14 same-sex couples and two men whose same-sex partners are deceased” and the couples argued that the “state officials violated [their] 14th amendment by denying them the right to marry or to have marriages lawfully performed in another state given full recognition and also violated their equal protection Clause. The supreme court ruled for this case because in the 14th Amendment it clearly declares that all people should have “equal protection under the law”, regardless of race or ethnicity.

Virginia case successfully outlawed legislation that prohibited members of different races to wed in holy matrimony, despite the fact that society’s view on interracial marriages remained intractable. In 1924, legislation was passed in Virginia that was designed to limit mixed-race relationships, called the Racial Integrity Act. Not only did it try to prevent intermixing, but it also produced two strict racial categories of “colored” and “white” that divided society even more. Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, fought to repeal that act in 1967 when they were both arrested for getting married, despite Virginia’s ban on marriages between blacks and whites. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the couple knew that they could not legally marry in their state of Virginia, so they went to Washington, D.C, and after “returning to their home state…the couple was charged with unlawful cohabitation and jailed” (ACLU). During the state court trial, the presiding judge, Leon Bazile found the couple to be guilty, justifying his ruling saying “[the] Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents...the fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” After this ruling, Mildred felt compelled to write a letter to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, asking for assistance fighting this state ruling. Soon, they were referred to the ACLU

A case is said to be landmark when it produces a precedent that is regarded as law by jurists during other cases. These cases are seen as such, generally, because they change the direction of the people making the laws and sitting on the courts, and forge a new path for justice which is more often than not seen as a perfection of the law. One such case occurred in Loving v. The Commonwealth of Virginia in 1967. The original complaint was made in 1958 during a time when the State of Virginia, which is considered deeply ingrained in the attitudes of the South though parts have largely Northern sympathies, still had laws on the books which discriminated substantially against minorities, especially Black citizens. The law in question did not allow two people of different races to marry because as a justice in a lower court ruled

The case United States v. Virginia, is about women gaining admission into an all male military college, Virginia Military Institute (VMI). VMI is known for producing strong leaders and women want to be able to join in their tradition and develop strong leadership roles like their male counterparts. This case was brought to action in 1990, a woman in high school wanted to be admitted into the school; however, the school was exclusively male students and they would not allow her. She filed a complaint to the Attorney General. Later on the United States sued Virginia for violating the Equal Protection Clause, which brought this case to the Supreme Court.

Out of five key Supreme Court rulings, Obergefell v. Hodges was selected to be evaluated in this piece. The ban on same sex marriage is the law being challenged in the case. According to the case study, “groups of same-sex couples sued their relevant state agencies in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee to challenge the constitutionality of those states' bans on same-sex marriage…” (Oyez, 2014).