The constitutional basis for overturning the Virginia statute in the case of Loving v. Virginia was the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled that the state's ban on interracial marriage violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees that all citizens are entitled to equal protection under the law. The Court held that laws forbidding interracial marriage were unconstitutional because they discriminated against individuals on the basis of race.
