Four Supreme Court cases that started in Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Many notable Supreme Court cases have shaped American law and society. As various rulings help us understand constitutional rights and influence public policy, it's essential to acknowledge that some of the landmark cases came from Virginia.

Here's a little bit about four of those Supreme Court cases that began in Virginia.

Cohens v. Virginia (1821) 

After Congress passed a bill to establish a National Lottery to raise money for Washington, D.C., brothers Philip and Mendes Cohen, who managed the Norfolk branch of Cohens Lottery and Exchange Office of Baltimore, were convicted in Virginia of selling lottery tickets in violation of state law.

In June 1820, both Cohens were charged by Norfolk authorities with selling tickets in Virginia for the National Lottery. They were later convicted in a local court and fined $100.

Cohens v. Virginia went to the Supreme Court to challenge the state's ability to uphold its law against selling D.C. lottery tickets and to determine if the Supreme Court had jurisdiction to review these decisions involving federal law.

The case set a standard moving forward for federal judicial authority, reaffirming the Supreme Court's role in reviewing state court decisions involving federal law.

Morgan v. Virginia (1946)

With racial injustices intensifying during World War II, a landmark ruling energized civil rights activism in the postwar era.

The Supreme Court ruled that Virginia's law requiring segregation on interstate buses violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution as a result of an incident on a bus in 1944 that led to one Black woman's arrest: the Supreme Court case Morgan v. Virginia. This decision came nearly a decade before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955.

Irene Morgan, who was working at a defense contractor in Baltimore, had traveled to Virginia to visit her mother by Greyhound bus. She was then arrested in Middlesex County on her way back to Baltimore, after refusing to move at the direction of the bus driver.

The Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law that mandated racial segregation on interstate buses.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) reportedly filed appeals on Morgan's behalf. The Supreme Court eventually heard her arguments even after the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled against Morgan in 1945.

Griffin v. School Board of Prince Edward County (1964)

In response to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, Virginia initiated a massive resistance to maintain segregationist policies. As a result, numerous public schools had been closed. When the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors was ordered to integrate the public schools, it forced all public schools in the county to shut down for the next five years.

In Griffin v. School Board of Prince Edward County, the court ruled that the county's decision to close public schools to avoid desegregation -- while allowing state funds to support segregated private schools for white students -- was unconstitutional and a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Justice Black wrote that “the record in this case unmistakably demonstrates the public school system was closed…for the purpose of depriving Negro children of a public school education.”

The ruling forced Prince Edward schools to immediately reopen and fund a public school system on equal terms for all students. As a result, it ended the five-year shutdown and collapsed the massive resistance in the Commonwealth.

Loving V. Virginia (1967)

As racial tensions escalated across the United States in the 1960s, some questioned whether interracial marriages were considered constitutional.

Mildred and Richmond Loving, an interracial couple from Caroline County, were longtime friends who fell in love. They married in June 1958, and the following month -- five weeks after the wedding -- they were arrested by the local sheriff overnight. They were soon indicted for violating Virginia's anti-miscegenation law, which considered interracial marriages a felony. It later led to a case with the Supreme Court, marking a major step in the civil rights movement.

Loving v. Virginia struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriage, challenging Virginia's Racial Integrity Act, which reportedly banned marriage between people of different races.

The events of this case led to multiple adaptations celebrating the landmark court case that legalized interracial marriage in the United States. Most recently, the Virginia Opera and the Richmond Symphony brought "Loving v. Virginia" to the Dominion Energy Center's Carpenter Theatre in May.

In June 1967, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously and found that Virginia's interracial marriage law violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, overturning the Lovings' conviction a decade prior.

The Supreme Court case was a notable precedent that influenced Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which ruled that the fundamental right to marry applies to same-sex couples under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the 14th Amendment.

The ruling came just two weeks before the start of the "long, hot summer of 1967" -- a period of widespread racial unrest across major cities in the United States, which led to multiple riots and frustrations about inequalities within Black communities. At a time when frustration and inequality were brewing nationwide, the decision spotlighted racial equality for Black people across the country.