Laws prohibiting interracial marriage affected the lives of millions of Americans over the decades. The Montana case of In re Shun T. Takahashi’s Estate offers a window into the actual operation of such laws, because many of the trial and appellate court records survive. After Togo Takahashi was murdered in early 1941, that he was a Japanese man married to a White woman affected the disposition of his estate in two ways. First, the courts ruled that Vivian Takahashi was entitled to none of Togo Takahashi’s property because their marriage was void. Although the wedding had taken place in Washington, where no law prohibited White people from taking non-White spouses, Montana courts ruled that the Montana prohibition controlled. Second, although Togo Takahashi had other relatives who could have inherited, they had the misfortune of being potential heirs during World War II, when the United States was at war with Japan. Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, they were disqualified from inheriting. Ultimately, the State of Montana and the United States split the estate; Togo Takahashi’s family and widow took nothing. The injustice of the case, however, did not go unnoticed. A Montana legislator interested in civil rights used the case to argue that Montana should repeal its miscegenation law. The state did so in 1953, fourteen years before the U.S. Supreme Court held that all such laws violated the Fourteenth Amendment.