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LOUISIANA JUSTICE AGAINST MIXED MARRIAGES RESIGNS: Keith Bardwell exits amid continued backlash from refusal to marry interracial couple.
Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish's 8th Ward, drew national outrage after he denied a marriage license to Beth McKay and Terence McKay, an interracial couple who ultimately got a marriage license from another justice of the peace in the same parish.
The McKays hired an attorney and protested Bardwell's actions, while Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called for the 56-year-old to lose his license. Also, the National Urban League called for an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, saying in a statement that Bardwell's actions were "a huge step backward in social justice."
Bardwell said in October that he had no regrets. "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 told CNN affiliate WAFB.
He insisted he is not racist and does not treat black people differently. He said he does not perform mixed-race marriages because he is concerned about the children of such marriages.
The U.S. Supreme Court tossed out race-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."
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