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.
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.
“morons, your bus is coming”
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.
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.
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.
Stel,
Who needs to be pithy when you can be accurate?
I have nothing pithy to say, except scumbag.
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 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!
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.
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.
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.
Louisiana, it figures.
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.
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.”
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
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…
It is very low-level everything in Louisiana. Justice, education, tolerance, and love.
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.
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.