Louisiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell—who refused to marry interracial couples—resigned Tuesday.

Bardwell, who served in Tangipahoa Parish, would recommend mixed-race couples find another justice to perform their marriage ceremony. He abstains from officiating these unions, he has said in interviews with the AP, because he thinks biracial children often face challenges growing up.
He told the Associated Press he “just does not believe in mixing races that way” in October, when his refusal to marry Beth Humphrey, a white woman and Terrence McKay, a black man, drew national attention.

Humphrey and McKay have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Bardwell.

Bardwell estimates he has refused to sign the marriage licenses of approximately four couples in the past five years, notes the Huffington Post.

Some politicians—including U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu–and civil rights groups have been pressuring Bardwell to resign over the past few weeks.

”By resigning … and ending his embarrassing tenure in office, Justice Bardwell has finally consented to the will of the vast majority of Louisiana citizens and nearly every governmental official in Louisiana,” Landrieu told the AP. “We are better off without him in public service.”

“What he did was clearly wrong,” added Gov. Bobby Jindal in a statement Tuesday. “This resignation was long overdue.”

Tangipahoa School Board President Danny Ridgel failed in getting board members to approve a resolution with a formal criticism of Bardwell’s views Tuesday, Jacqueline Cochran reported in a special to The Advocate.