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The Louisiana justice of the peace who caused a national controversy when he denied a marriage license to an interracial couple won't apologize for his actions.
"I'm sorry, you know, that I offended the couple, but I did help them and tell them who to go to and to get married," Keith Bardwell said on CBS' 'The Early Show' Monday.
"And they went and got married, and they should be happily married, and I don't see what the problem is now."
Bardwell, a justice of the peace in the state's Tangipahoa Parish, refused to issue the license to groom Terence McKay, who is African-American, and his white bride-to-be, Beth Humphrey, in early October. The couple was later married by another justice of the peace.
Bardwell, who is white, defended his actions, saying that he was worried about an interracial couple's future children and the hardships they would face.
"I've had countless numbers of people that was born in that situation, and that they claim that the blacks or the whites didn't accept the children," Bardwell told 'Early Show's' Harry Smith. "And I didn't want to put the children in that position."
But calls for his dismissal have continued around the country over the weekend.
"Disciplinary action should be taken immediately -- including the revoking of his license," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said in a statement Friday.
Bardwell's stance technically violates the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court Loving vs. Virginia ruling that state governments could not place race-based restrictions on marriage. But the official said he is within his legal rights to recuse himself from performing a marriage ceremony.
"It's kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven't done wrong," Bardwell told WAFB on Saturday.
Justice Of The Peace Keith Bardwell Says "No Laws Were Broken"Couple Denied Marriage License To Seek Legal ActionRead more…
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