A unanimous Supreme Court decision overturned Lovings' convictions on June 12, 1967. The Supreme Court ruled that Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute violated the Fourteenth Amendment, specifically Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause. Chief Justice Warren's opinion stated that the Constitution guarantees citizens "the freedom to marry, or not to marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State." The Pace v. Alabama, 106 US 583 (1883) was an earlier anti-miscegenation statute case that was ruled constitutional. Tony Pace, an African American male, and Mary Cox, a white female, were residents of Alabama. In 1881 the couple was arrested because their sexual relationship violated Alabama Code 4189, an anti-miscegenation statute. They were found guilty and the couple was sentenced to two years in prison in 1882. The conviction was appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court on the motion that it violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the