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(Keith Bardwell/The Raw Story)
BATON ROUGE, LA---- Keith Bardwell, the justice of the peace, who refused to marry interracial couples in Tangipahoa Parish, announced his resignation on Tuesday after weeks of calls for his dismissal from civil rights groups and several top elected Louisiana officials.
Bardwell’s brief resignation announcement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne was “long overdue” according to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.
On October 8th 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, based on the fact that they were an interracial couple.
Bardwell refused to marry interracial couples based on his belief that the children born to such couples will end up suffering.
"The black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society,” Bardwell said.
"We're saddened that it took national attention to this issue, which was decided back in 1967 by the Supreme Court, and also that it took public admonishment from other elected leaders in order for him to resign," said Laura Catlett, a lawyer for Humphrey and McKay.
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu said Bardwell's refusal to marry the couple reflected terribly on the state.
"By resigning ... and ending his embarrassing tenure in office, Justice Bardwell has finally consented to the will of the vast majority of Louisiana citizens and nearly every governmental official in Louisiana ... We are better off without him in public service," she said.
Humphrey and McKay the couple that Bardwell refused to marry have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Bardwell and his wife.
Catlett said the resignation won't stop the lawsuit."This does not in any way change the fact that he, with his wife's help, discriminated against an interracial couple while he was a public official.”
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 Loving v. Virginia case. In the unanimous decision, the court said that "Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state."
Bardwell served as Justice of the peace in Ponchatoula, La since 1975.
Comments
Good Riddance
A sad commentary that since 1975 Bardwell has been in open defiance of the law of the land and no one called him on it! "Black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society." Really? Apparently, Bardwell does have a clue of the lineage of the present occupant of the highest office in the land. Racism is an ugly thing to behold and the more racist are called out the better our country will be.
Only black people are allowed to be racist in this country
Perhaps this intelligent man is aware of the NWO agenda to race-mix the Caucasian race right off the face of the earth. No offence to any of God's other children, but we are the only group that poses a threat, and this is a fight to the finish.
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