Louisiana justice of the peace refuses to marry interracial couple

By Michael J.W. Stickings

A justice of the peace in Lousiana has refused to marry an interracial white-black couple because he doesn't think they last and because... well, because he just cares so much about the children:

I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves. In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer.

Keith Bardwell's heart, it would seem, is a backwards bastion of bullshit and bigotry. And Tangipahoa Parish -- which bills itself as "more than a great place to live," and where Bardwell holds office -- seems to be living in the darkness of a Jim Crow-era past. Seriously, how can this man, this bigot, this ignorant fool, be a justice of the peace? If the parish knows what's good for itself, and has any sense of justice at all, any sense of what it means to be American, it will remove him from office as soon as possible.

The ACLU is asking the Louisiana Supreme Court to investigate -- because, of course, Bardwell's refusal to marry interracial couples is not just bigoted but illegal. If the parish won't or can't do it, the state must step in. In 2009, and with respect to civil rights and racial equality generally, as well as to freedom from governmental interference in one's private life, it's absolutely clear what needs to be done.