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Many people felt that such a ruling had
been a long time coming. Despite the landmark
1952 case, Brown v. Board of Education,
in which the Court ruled that segregation
within the public school system violated
the equal protection clause, the Court seemed
consistently reluctant to use its power
to interpret laws concerning personal and
private matters such as marriage. In fact,
the Court had declined to rule on a case
similar to the Lovings' in 1955. When the
Loving decision was handed down twelve years
later, sixteen states had laws akin to Virginia's
anti-miscegenation statute, and the consequences
of this ruling were both sweeping and immediate.
Over thirty years later, some are wondering
how this decision might affect the issue
of gay marriage and whether the Court could
find a similar violation of the equal protection
clause as applied to homosexuals' right
to marry.
For a full summary of this case, go to:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?
court=US&vol=388&invol=1
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