BATON ROUGE, La. — Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana justice of the peace who refuses to marry interracial couples, resigned Tuesday after weeks of calls for his ouster.
Beth Humphrey, who is white, has said she and her now-husband, Terence Mc Kay, who is black, received their marriage license from the parish clerk of court, where they also got a list of people qualified to perform the ceremony. When she called Bardwell, Humphrey said, the justice’s wife told her he wouldn’t sign their marriage license because they were a “mixed couple.”
When questioned, Bardwell, who is white, acknowledged he routinely avoids marrying interracial couples because he believes children born to them end up suffering.
Bardwell didn’t return repeated calls Tuesday to comment. Humphrey and McKay have filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against him.
