WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Interracial couple files federal lawsuit
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Keith Bardwell
Terence McKay
Beth McKayNEW ORLEANS, LA (WAFB) - A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday afternoon against a Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry an interracial couple.
Attorney Laura Catlett of New Orleans represents the couple. She filed the suit in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans.
The lawsuit seeks to have a federal judge declare the conduct of Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, unconstitutional and seeks unspecified monetary damages.
Catlett said she wants the court to stop Bardwell or anyone acting on his behalf from violating a constitutional right.
Terence and Beth McKay went to Bardwell earlier this month to be married. Bardwell refused to marry the couple because Terence is black and Beth is white.
They were eventually married by another justice of the peace.
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