United States v. Norwood W. Barber, United States of America v. Linda K. Barber

The Barbers, defendant-appellants, are a married couple who live in Virginia. Nor-wood Barber is black; Linda Barber is white. At voir dire, they requested a question on jurors’ attitudes about interracial marriage. The district judge refused. The majority has found that the refusal to ask a question on voir dire about attitudes toward marriage between blacks and whites did not constitute reversible error. I disagree, finding that, there was a reasonable possibility that prejudice may have influenced the jury against the Barbers as a miscegenous couple.

I

Up until 1967, the mere fact of the…