b) Loving v. Virginia

The 1967 U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia stands as a landmark decision in the history of civil rights and constitutional law in the United States. This case successfully challenged and overturned bans on interracial marriage, specifically targeting the Virginia anti-miscegenation statute, which prohibited marriage between individuals classified as “white” and “non-white.”

The case was brought to the Supreme Court by Mildred Loving, a woman of African American and Native American descent, and her white husband, Richard Loving. After being sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other, their legal battle culminated in a unanimous Supreme Court decision. The Court declared that state laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional, violating the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

This historic ruling effectively ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage throughout the United States. It was a monumental victory for the civil rights movement, as it not only struck down laws that discriminated based on race but also affirmed fundamental principles of equality and individual rights. Loving v. Virginia has since been cited as a precedent in numerous other cases and remains a seminal case in the ongoing struggle for civil rights and equality. The decision is celebrated annually on June 12th, known as Loving Day, commemorating this significant step towards racial equality in America.