Judge who refused to perform interracial marriages quits

At least four times in the last two and a halfu00a0 years, Keith Bardwell says he refused to marry interracial couples while serving as a Louisiana justice of the peace.

He said from his experience and discussions, he had concluded that blacks and whites do not readily accept offspring of such relationships, so the children end up suffering.

His latest rebuff to a bride and groom of different races turned out to be his last. After weeks of calls for his ouster, Bardwell resigned after 34 years in office on Tuesday, leaving his reasons a secret.
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Beth Humphrey, who is white, has said she and her husband, Terence McKay, who is black, received their marriage license from the parish clerk of court.

When she called Bardwells office on Oct 6, Humphrey said the justice's wife told her that Bardwell wouldn't sign the license as they were a "mixed couple."