Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana has become an infamous figure overnight after he refused to marry an interracial couple out of concern for their possible children. However, he helpfully explained “I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way.”
Could have fooled me.
I take it that he is not a big fan of Othello.
Bardwell seems to be laboring under the misconception that he can administer his office along racial lines and that insisting on people marrying within their race is not racist.
He insists that “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”
“Piles” of minority friends who are even allowed to use his bathroom.
He insists that he is just thinking of the kinder: “There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage,. I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”
In the past 2 1/2 years, Bardwell says that he has refused to marry at least four couples. This includes the most recent “unacceptable” couple Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32.
They are in the same position as Mildred Loving (Mildred Delores Jeter) and Richard Perry Loving. The interracial couple that led to Supreme Court to strike down the Racial Integrity Act, a state law banning marriages between any white person and any non-white person. While the Lovings were prosecuted under the law, the unanimous ruling in Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967) established that it was unconstitutional to deny such licenses to interracial couples.
Obviously, Bardwell has to be stripped of his position. There is also the question as to the status of his bar license since some bars deny licenses to lawyers with known racist views. Finally, there is the potential for civil liability since he is violating the constitutional rights of these couples.
The couple has come forward to express their anger and disgust over the incident, here.
What is horrendous is that he and most other JP’s and State officials can get away with this kind of behavior if the couple is same-sex.
Bardwell’s name does not appear online on the LA Bar’s membership list. Once does not have to be a member of the bar to be a Justice of the Pease in Louisiana. It is a very low leverl judicial office for small claims.
It is very low-level everything in Louisiana. Justice, education, tolerance, and love.
Tell this doofus that the good people of Louisiana couldn’t care less about what he believes in…
“I treat them just like anyone else.”
Unbelievable how some people manage to stay alive without essential brain functions…
Methinks our Klanish Mr. Bardwell reads Shakespeare too much. Perhaps his excuse is that he is no fan of marriage:
“O curse of marriage,
That we can call these delicate creatures ours,
And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad,
And live upon the vapour of a dungeon,
Than keep a corner in the thing I love
For others’ uses.”
-Othello, 3. 3
No “beast with two backs”* for him. Toad, indeed!
* “Your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.”
–Othello, 1. 1
Lottakatz is correct.
About a year ago I wrote:
“Better yet: get the government out of the business of licensing marriages at all. These license laws were put on the books in the first place to restrict interracial marriage, and we would do well to be rid of them entirely. If they remain in place they may one day be used to allow clever legislators a vehicle to compel drug testing in order to get a marriage license, or perhaps for DNA registration to check for undesirable genetic outcomes for offspring, or countless other invasions of personal privacy.”
Puzzling:
are you a frigging genius?
“…for DNA registration to check for undesirable genetic outcomes for offspring, ……..”
once health care is controlled by government that is exactly what they will do, there is no doubt in my mind and they will be able to do it legitimately and claim it is for the good of the state and the population as a whole. The road of good intentions sometimes leads to hell because of the banality of most men.
Louisiana, it figures.
Mespo:
you just wanted an excuse to use “the beast with two backs”, did you personally send this story to JT for him to post?
Personally, being from the Midwest and in no way erudite, I like “hoeing corn”, “laying pipe”, “down hole circulation (an oil field term), “offshore drilling”(when one is on the water), “spudding in”, “wire lining”, “bottom hole sampling”, “bullet perforating”, drill-stem testing”, dynamic positioning”, “hydraulic packing”.
One cant blame Shakespeare for being short on euphemisms, he never worked in the patch.
Buddha,
we have not heard from the Louisiana Forum.
alas I serve to annoy or is that I awaken to annoy:
The Louisiana Judicial System Begins with The Justice of the Peace and Constables. These Elected Officials have a $3,000.00 Jurisdiction Limit and Ease the Case Loads from Area District Courts. Each Justice of the Peace Court is Set within Their Venue which the Boundary Lines are Controlled by Wards.
qualifications (Yeah right):
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
The candidate shall be of good moral character, a qualified elector, be a resident of the ward and district from which elected and able to read and write the English language correctly. By the date of qualification in 2008, the candidate shall possess a high school diploma or its equivalent as determined by BESE. Beginning in 2008, a candidate shall not have attained age 70 by the date he qualifies; a Justice of the
Peace who reaches age 70 while serving a term of office will be allowed to complete the term. (shall not apply to those Justices of the Peace who are serving or were elected on or before 8/15/06) A Justice of the Peace elected to and holding office on 7/2/99 may continue to serve whether or not he resides in the ward and the district from which he was elected. A justice of the peace appointed to fill an unexpired term is not authorized to run for that office in the next subsequent election for that office, either special or otherwise, even though he has officially resigned from the office of justice of the peace.
Link(s): http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/
So if you you gotta a problem with a JP not being require to be licensed as an attorney? You have not a complaint system to go through as its not required.
This man hates heterosexuals! It is his job, given to him by God, to sanctify marriage by hitch’n as many straight people as possible. What kind of a conservative is he?
My heart goes out to this and the other couples. It is such a slap in the face. To be confronted with hatred as they begin their marriage is cruel. I wish them all many happy years together.
I just got this info:
“EQUINOX FLOWER (Higanbana)
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu; 1958; 118 minutes; 35mm; English subtitles
A go-between for couples seeking arranged marriages is unprepared when his daughter decides to make wedding plans on her own. Equinox Flower demonstrates an increasing sympathy with the younger generation of post-war Japan.”
There are so many strictures on marriage reflecting each society’s prejudice. Time to evolve or, if one is a young earth sociologist, time for God to strike people like this judge with lightening until they change their ways!
The question then becomes, would he be willing to marry a gay mix raced couple? Or a mix raced couple where one partner is infertile?
Puzzling,
Right, except for all those Federal\State\Local\common law involving marriages, the government has no interest in marriages. Just like they have no interest in regulating what gets incorporated, right?
I have nothing pithy to say, except scumbag.
Stel,
Who needs to be pithy when you can be accurate?
There ought to be a statute making it a crime for a judge to deny someone his well-established constitutional rights. This judge, after all, has broken the highest law of the land, and ought to face consequences more severe than merely having his decision overturned. I’m not talking about punishing a judge who merely gets it wrong. I’m talking about cases like this, where no sane and honest person of any political persuasion could deny that the judge has denied someone his well-established constitutional rights.
It is just so dispiriting that after all that has happened in this country regarding race that people like this JP are still around in a sizable enough proportion of the population (10%) to keep this pot boiling. I believe the man when he says he doesn’t think he is a racist. Many white southerners didn’t think they were racist either and blamed the “outsiders” for coming in and upsetting things.
The “some of my best friends are……” formulation applied to Afro-Americans, Jewish American, Latino American, Native Americans, Italians American’s, Polish Americans, etc. endlessly.
Of course what the JP left out was the end phrase which was historically “but I wouldn’t want one to marry my daughter.”
Part of the problem is that many racists don’t think they are racist and feel put upon when they are so adjudged. It comes down to the fact that a sizable percentage of humans are really dumb and/or really lack awareness of themselves. Thus they can’t understand what all the fuss is about.
Henry, there ought to be a draft version of such a law, posted here for comment. It would be a criminal statute with the elements of the crime of denying a well-established constitutional right, including definitions and coverage.
“morons, your bus is coming”
From AY’s post:
“qualifications (Yeah right):
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE
The candidate shall be of good moral character,”…
As Adam Savage would say, “Well, there’s yer problem!”
A fair number of people would read this very first requirement and say, “of course, someone of “good moral character” is going to deny the ‘mixing of the races’. Tolerating such a thing would be of low or poor moral character.” (and let’s not forget that this applies to folks of every “race” and ethnicity. Ask a Greek or Korean American about the issues with marrying outside of their group…)
How on earth do these “good moral character” phrases continue in any legal situation? Either they have to be very, very loose or they invite some crazy interpretations.
Vince, I’ll call leg. counsel.
GWLawSchoolMom:
I like your bus reference. I live in NC, where it’s not as archaeic as LA, (we became a blue state for the 1st time at election time) but I live in a rural, small town and I’ve been waiting on the bus to come for them for a long time!
The bus stop is crowded, but I hear it coming around the corner on Main St. where 1 of our 3 Baptist churches sits in our one-stoplight town. And even though the hourly hymns thundered out by their church bells drowns out its noisy exhaust, I’m not giving up.
Good Moral Character?
Exactly what is Good Moral Character? Do Politicians, have to comply like a person seeking admission to the bar? to become a naturalized citizen? To be a Roman Catholic Priest? (Threw this one in for free)
Here is the only crap that I have found related to GMC and its for the state of Florida (Day Care).
CHILD CARE
ATTESTATION OF GOOD MORAL CHARACTER
393.135 relating to sexual misconduct with certain developmentally disabled clients
394.4593 relating to sexual misconduct with certain mental health patients
415.111 adult abuse, neglect, or exploitation of aged persons or disabled adults
741.30 domestic violence and injunction for protection (defined in 741.28) means any assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, etc. of a family or household member
782.04 murder
782.07 manslaughter, aggravated manslaughter of an elderly person or disabled adult, or aggravated manslaughter of a child
et. al.
Link: http://www.babygator.ufl.edu/about/researchers/Attestation.pdf
Am I free of character defects? WOW
I wonder if the Obama DoJ will touch this.
naschkatze 1, October 16, 2009 at 4:48 pm
I wonder if the Obama DoJ will touch this.
***************
well yeah, we have to have our attention diverted from the real problems facing many of us. Like unemployment, hunger, wages, insurance, children, parents, good weed, DEA, ATF, IRS, DOJ, FBI, CIA, ASCAP, Gitmo, Terrorism, Indian Casino’s (still pissed about the beads for property deal)etc.
You see its all smoke and mirrors. I used to prefer smoke in the tube and lines on the mirror. But welcome to the Hotel California.
Dear anonymous, I always put civil rights first. All the other things don’t matter if citizens have no rights.
aerie writes: I like your bus reference.
I should have given the reference. It’s from “Ground Hog Day” before Bill Murray is turned into a nice guy.
AY writes: Exactly what is Good Moral Character?
it’s what other people tell you how you should behave. It has nothing to do with how they should behave.
As far as the DOJ goes, every few days I’m sending him letters, emails and petitions about torture, detention without charge, trial or sentence. Even though he is making incremental moves, it’s not enough, as pointed out in the thread on Obama pushing to keep the pictures of torture out of the light.
This isn’t limited to Louisiana. Although it was 20 years ago, Boston had serious racial problems. When I lived in the North End, a woman’s apartment was set on fire because she dated a black man. And when our local tenant’s org in the Back Bay/Fenway had a fair (I volunteered there) I had 2 biracial couples, one with kids, that couldn’t find an apartment. Back Bay and esp. Fenway was a mixed community; that’s what we liked about it. The couples had no trouble on the phone, but when they showed up, they were told the apartment was already rented.
I don’t know if things have changed in Boston; I only go there to see doctors now. But that attitude is every where; even in the Berkshires, you’d be surprised how much anti-semitism and racism is just beneath the surface.
This guy reminds me of the misogynist druggists who refuse to handle prescriptions for Plan B.
Did they end up getting married? Was this the only guy that could or they wanted to be married by? I wouldn’t want nobody marrying me who was ill spirited.
I left a reply a few days ago, and I screwed it up. I’ll try to find it again: The “Justice of the Peace” defended his actions on tape.
That’s what both eases and frightens me. They are so upfront about their hatred, so you know who the bad guys are, but they are setting an egregious tone for the country.
Is it Cronkite’s vision of what 24/7 news cycles will do?
Related: Evolving English. My cell phone company offers me a ‘kickback’ if I sign up other people. Honestly, I feel like my grandmother, “what is this world coming to?” But the poor dear was horrified that she gave birth to three Republicans. Think I mentioned that before.
Back to the point, there’s a lot of stories like this I can tell about the North End (and elsewhere.) There was a woman that lived on the 4th floor of our building. Lilly was screaming out of her window at 4 a.m. “What the hell are you doing here?” and less polite things, most of which I couldn’t make out. We looked out the window, and there was a Black, very-well dressed man–probably a student at Suffolk or another school, standing there, looking puzzled. We don’t remember how we communicated this, but we told him how unsafe it was. In another few minutes, there would’ve been a mob.
Just missed talking to you guys. Sweet tides,
This just in:
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned Tuesday.
Keith Bardwell, who is white, quit the post with a one-sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and no explanation of his decision: ”I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009.”
Justice.
Thanks for the follow up.
This is very good news! I also thank you for the update.
Oh,what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day! I don’t sing every morning.
Vince, thank you for the great news.