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Louisiana justice who refused interracial marriage resigns
Keith Bardwell has said he was concerned about children of mixed-race married couples.
A Louisiana justice of the peace who drew criticism for refusing to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple has resigned, the secretary of state's office said Tuesday.
Keith Bardwell resigned in person at the Louisiana secretary of state's office, said spokesman Jacques Berry. The state Supreme Court will appoint an interim justice of the peace to fill Bardwell's position, Berry said, and a special election will be held next year to fill the position permanently.
Bardwell, a justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish's 8th Ward, refused to issue a marriage license to Beth Humphrey, 30, and her boyfriend Terence McKay, 32, both of Hammond, Louisiana. The two obtained their marriage license from another justice of the peace in the same parish. They filed a federal lawsuit against Bardwell on October 20.
Bardwell did not return repeated phone calls from CNN in October, but told CNN affiliate WAFB that he had no regrets about the decision. "It's kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven't done wrong," he said.
In addition, he told the Hammond Daily Star in an October story that he did not marry the couple because he was concerned for the children that might be born of the relationship and that, in his experience, most interracial marriages don't last.
"I'm not a racist," he said. "I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children."
Humphrey said last month she wanted Bardwell to resign. "He doesn't believe he's being racist, but it is racist," she said.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has said he believed Bardwell should lose his license.
The National Urban League called for an investigation into the incident by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, saying that Bardwell's actions were "a huge step backward in social justice."
According to the Census Bureau, Tangipahoa Parish is about 70 percent white and 30 percent black.
The U.S. Supreme Court tossed out any racially based limitations on marriage in the landmark 1967 ruling in the case Loving v. Virginia. In the unanimous decision, the court said that under the Constitution, "the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State."
Source: CNN.com