Gov. Bobby Jindal has joined civil rights groups and other concerned citizens in protesting the actions of a white justice of peace from Louisiana who refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple.
On Friday, Jindal, the first Indian American to become governor, issued a statement calling for disciplinary action against Keith Bardwell, a justice of peace in southeastern Louisiana. Bardwell sparked public outrage when he refused to issue a marriage license to Beth Humphrey, who is white, and Terence McKay, who is black, by citing concerns about the couple’s future children.
In a statement, Jindal called for an investigation into Bardwell’s actions by the Judiciary Commission and is calling for his dismissal.
“This is a clear violation of constitutional rights and federal and state law,” Jindal said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press. “Disciplinary action should be taken immediately—including the revoking of his license.”
According to a CNN article, Bardwell does not sign off on interracial marriages because of concern for the children who may be produced out of the union, and because in his experience, most interracial marriages don’t last. Because he could not personally endorse the marriage, he had the couple referred to another justice of the peace.
However, the 1967 landmark Supreme Court Case Loving v. Virginia ended racial limitations on marriage in a unanimous decision, in which the court said, “…the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the state.”
According to another CNN article, the number of interracial marriages nearly quadrupled from 1970 to 2005, when nearly 8.5 million Americans were living in interracial marriages.
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