Loving v Virginia: Lawyer in famed interracial marriage case dies

The lawyer who successfully petitioned the US Supreme Court to strike down anti-interracial marriage laws has died at 86, according to his family.

Bernard S Cohen represented the Loving couple in a lawsuit against the state of Virginia in 1967. Their name ensured it would be a landmark case, he told US media.

The ruling was later used in 2015 as precedent to legalise gay marriage.

Cohen went on to serve as an "unabashed liberal" state lawmaker.

His most famous clients - Richard and Mildred Loving - were arrested in their marriage bed only weeks after their wedding in 1958. They pleaded guilty to violating the state's Racial Integrity Act, and avoided one year in jail by agreeing to keep out of the state for 25 years.

In a 1992 interview with the Associated Press, Cohen said that while discussing legal strategy with his clients, Mr Loving simply told him: "Mr Cohen, tell the court I love my wife and it is just unfair that I can't live with her in Virginia."