What was the constitutional basis for overturning the Virginia statute in Loving v. Virginia?
A. The Supreme Court found that the ability to marry someone who makes less than $30,000 is protected under the equal protection clause
B. The Supreme Court found that the ability to marry someone from another state is protected under the equal protection clause
C. The Supreme Court found that the ability to marry someone from another race is protected under the equal protection clause
D. The Supreme Court found that the ability to marry someone who is more than ten years older than you is protected under the equal protection clause
C. The Supreme Court found that the ability to marry someone from another race is protected under the equal protection clause
C. The Supreme Court found that the ability to marry someone from another race is protected under the equal protection clause.
The correct answer is C. The Supreme Court found that the ability to marry someone from another race is protected under the equal protection clause.
To find the answer to this question, you can start by understanding the background of the case and the constitutional issues it raised.
Loving v. Virginia was a landmark Supreme Court case in 1967 that challenged Virginia's law prohibiting interracial marriages. Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Loving, a black woman, got married in Washington, D.C. They then returned to Virginia, where their marriage was considered illegal under the state's anti-miscegenation laws.
The Lovings challenged this law, arguing that it violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights, specifically the Equal Protection Clause. The Equal Protection Clause states that no state shall deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
To understand the constitutional basis for overturning the Virginia statute, you need to know how the Supreme Court interpreted the Equal Protection Clause in this case. The Court held that the Virginia law violated the Equal Protection Clause because it classified and burdened people based on their race, which the Court deemed unconstitutional.
Therefore, the constitutional basis for overturning the Virginia statute in Loving v. Virginia was that the ability to marry someone from another race is protected under the equal protection clause. This decision played a significant role in the broader civil rights movement and had a lasting impact on the legal recognition of interracial marriages in the United States.