Defense= I do not discriminate when it comes to acting illegally, therefore it's okay. Huh?

I had read a news story earlier about a NYC official who campaigned with photos of his family. What made this newsworthy, apparently, was the fact that he and his wife are an interracial couple with mixed race children. Now, it would be foolish to pretend that we have moved beyond this being an issue, hence, the news story. But the fact that my generation views this differently than my parents generation, who viewed it differently than my grandparents generation, and lets hope my children will view it with more liberalism than my generation, surely means the society at large is moving slowly away from the previous bigotry. More importantly, the Supreme Court, in 1967, ruled against the state of Virginia, striking down the law against miscegenation as unconstitutional.

So I was a bit surprised to read about this government official, who has denied a marriage license to an interracial couple, specifically stating that his reason for doing so is that they are interracial. The defense offered by this official is that he treats everyone the same, whether black or white. What he fails to understand is his actions are illegal. He cannot plead that he treats everyone illegally, and therefore it's okay. The key point being the illegality of his action, not that he does not discriminate in his stupidity.

It will be interesting to see what happens.