Today In History (June 12 1967)

[AustrianPainter]

TODAY IN HISTORY

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1967: A corrupted United States Supreme Court unilaterally declares all US state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be “unconstitutional,” overturning the will of the people and statutes in most states of the union going back more than a century.

[Will Williams]

TODAY IN HISTORY
scotus-room-750x481.png
1967: A corrupted United States Supreme Court unilaterally declares all US state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be “unconstitutional,” overturning the will of the people and statutes in most states of the union going back more than a century.

Corrupted is an understatement.

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)
Argued: April 10, 1967
Decided: June 12, 1967

A unanimous Court struck down state laws banning marriage between individuals of different races, holding that these anti-miscegenation statutes violated both the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

FACTS
Like 16 other Southern states, Virginia enforced a law that banned marriage between whites and African-Americans. Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and an African-American woman, married in Washington, D.C. to avoid the application of Virginia's anti-miscegenation law, known as the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. They returned to Virginia, however, where police found them in the same bed in their home at night. During the raid, the police found the couple's marriage certificate in their bedroom.

This document became the basis for criminal charges against the Lovings under the anti-miscegenation law and a related statute. There was no trial, since they pleaded guilty and received a choice between spending one year in prison or leaving the state for the next 25 years. The Lovings moved back to the District of Columbia but soon found themselves wishing to return to Virginia. In 1964, five years after their conviction, Mrs. Loving contacted the ACLU via Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. This case arose when the ACLU sought to vacate the judgment and set aside the sentence, while the Lovings also filed an action in federal court. Their claims were heard in the Virginia Supreme Court, which modified the sentence but affirmed the convictions...

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/388/1/
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. [Footnote 1] 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
Page 388 U. S. 3
of Caroline County, a grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia's ban on interracial marriages. On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the charge, and were sentenced to one year in jail; however, the trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that:

"Almighty God [Mother Nature] created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

After their convictions, the Lovings took up residence in the District of Columbia. On November 6, 1963, they filed a motion in the state trial court to vacate the judgment and set aside the sentence on the ground that the statutes which they had violated were repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment. The motion not having been decided by October 28, 1964, the Lovings instituted a class action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia requesting that a three-judge court be convened to declare the Virginia anti-miscegenation statutes unconstitutional and to enjoin state officials from enforcing their convictions. On January 22, 1965, the state trial judge denied the motion to vacate the sentences, and the Lovings perfected an appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. On February 11, 1965, the three-judge District Court continued the case to allow the Lovings to present their constitutional claims to the highest state court.
The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the anti-miscegenation statutes and, after
Page 388 U. S. 4
modifying the sentence, affirmed the convictions. [Footnote 2] The Lovings appealed this decision, and we noted probable jurisdiction on December 12, 1966, 385 U.S. 986.
The two statutes under which appellants were convicted and sentenced are part of a comprehensive statutory scheme aimed at prohibiting and punishing interracial marriages. The Lovings were convicted of violating § 258 of the Virginia Code:
"Leaving State to evade law. -- If any white person and colored person shall go out of this State, for the purpose of being married, and with the intention of returning, and be married out of it, and afterwards return to and reside in it, cohabiting as man and wife, they shall be punished as provided in § 20-59, and the marriage shall be governed by the same law as if it had been solemnized in this State. The fact of their cohabitation here as man and wife shall be evidence of their marriage."
Section 259, which defines the penalty for miscegenation, provides:
"Punishment for marriage. -- If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than five years."
Other central provisions in the Virginia statutory scheme are § 20-57, which automatically voids all marriages between "a white person and a colored person" without any judicial proceeding, [Footnote 3] and §§ 20-54 and 1-14 which,
Page 388 U. S. 5
respectively, define "white persons" and "colored persons and Indians" for purposes of the statutory prohibitions. [Footnote 4] The Lovings have never disputed in the course of this litigation that Mrs. Loving is a "colored person" or that Mr. Loving is a "white person" within the meanings given those terms by the Virginia statutes...

[Will Williams]

TODAY IN HISTORY
scotus-room-750x481.png
1967: A corrupted United States Supreme Court unilaterally declares all US state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be “unconstitutional,” overturning the will of the people and statutes in most states of the union going back more than a century.

Corrupted is an understatement.

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)
Argued: April 10, 1967
Decided: June 12, 1967

A unanimous Court struck down state laws banning marriage between individuals of different races, holding that these anti-miscegenation statutes violated both the Due Process and the Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

FACTS
Like 16 other Southern states, Virginia enforced a law that banned marriage between whites and African-Americans. Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and an African-American woman, married in Washington, D.C. to avoid the application of Virginia's anti-miscegenation law, known as the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. They returned to Virginia, however, where police found them in the same bed in their home at night. During the raid, the police found the couple's marriage certificate in their bedroom.

This document became the basis for criminal charges against the Lovings under the anti-miscegenation law and a related statute. There was no trial, since they pleaded guilty and received a choice between spending one year in prison or leaving the state for the next 25 years. The Lovings moved back to the District of Columbia but soon found themselves wishing to return to Virginia. In 1964, five years after their conviction, Mrs. Loving contacted the ACLU via Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. This case arose when the ACLU sought to vacate the judgment and set aside the sentence, while the Lovings also filed an action in federal court. Their claims were heard in the Virginia Supreme Court, which modified the sentence but affirmed the convictions...

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/388/1/
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. [Footnote 1] 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
Page 388 U. S. 3
of Caroline County, a grand jury issued an indictment charging the Lovings with violating Virginia's ban on interracial marriages. On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pleaded guilty to the charge, and were sentenced to one year in jail; however, the trial judge suspended the sentence for a period of 25 years on the condition that the Lovings leave the State and not return to Virginia together for 25 years. He stated in an opinion that:

"Almighty God [Mother Nature] created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."

After their convictions, the Lovings took up residence in the District of Columbia. On November 6, 1963, they filed a motion in the state trial court to vacate the judgment and set aside the sentence on the ground that the statutes which they had violated were repugnant to the Fourteenth Amendment. The motion not having been decided by October 28, 1964, the Lovings instituted a class action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia requesting that a three-judge court be convened to declare the Virginia anti-miscegenation statutes unconstitutional and to enjoin state officials from enforcing their convictions. On January 22, 1965, the state trial judge denied the motion to vacate the sentences, and the Lovings perfected an appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. On February 11, 1965, the three-judge District Court continued the case to allow the Lovings to present their constitutional claims to the highest state court.
The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the anti-miscegenation statutes and, after
Page 388 U. S. 4
modifying the sentence, affirmed the convictions. [Footnote 2] The Lovings appealed this decision, and we noted probable jurisdiction on December 12, 1966, 385 U.S. 986.
The two statutes under which appellants were convicted and sentenced are part of a comprehensive statutory scheme aimed at prohibiting and punishing interracial marriages. The Lovings were convicted of violating § 258 of the Virginia Code:
"Leaving State to evade law. -- If any white person and colored person shall go out of this State, for the purpose of being married, and with the intention of returning, and be married out of it, and afterwards return to and reside in it, cohabiting as man and wife, they shall be punished as provided in § 20-59, and the marriage shall be governed by the same law as if it had been solemnized in this State. The fact of their cohabitation here as man and wife shall be evidence of their marriage."
Section 259, which defines the penalty for miscegenation, provides:
"Punishment for marriage. -- If any white person intermarry with a colored person, or any colored person intermarry with a white person, he shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for not less than one nor more than five years."
Other central provisions in the Virginia statutory scheme are § 20-57, which automatically voids all marriages between "a white person and a colored person" without any judicial proceeding, [Footnote 3] and §§ 20-54 and 1-14 which,
Page 388 U. S. 5
respectively, define "white persons" and "colored persons and Indians" for purposes of the statutory prohibitions. [Footnote 4] The Lovings have never disputed in the course of this litigation that Mrs. Loving is a "colored person" or that Mr. Loving is a "white person" within the meanings given those terms by the Virginia statutes...