It looks like we have our answer as to what Rowan County clerk Kim Davis will do. She has decided to go all the way in defying the law. This morning she refused to issue marriage licenses to two same-sex couples even though she has exhausted all her legal appeals, all the way up to the US Supreme court.
The clerk arrived at her office Tuesday morning just after 7 a.m., and a couple attempted to obtain a marriage license shortly after 8 a.m.
An employee in the county clerk’s officer denied a marriage license to the same-sex couple, who had previously attempted to obtain one three times.
The employee said Davis was unavailable to meet with the couples because she was “doing reports.”
However, the clerk eventually emerged and said she would not issue the licenses to same-sex couples, and they asked under whose authority she could make that decision.
“Under God’s authority,” Davis said. “I’ve asked you all to leave, you’re interrupting my business.”
You can see the video of the angry confrontation here. One applicant angrily told her that he and his partner have been together for 17 years and asked her how long she has been together with someone. She asked them to leave and they challenged her to call the police. She then withdrew to her office to the cheers of the crowd.
It is clear that tempers are rising.
I think Davis is being badly advised by her lawyers from the archconservative religious outfit Liberty Counsel because they will profit from her going to jail. As Mark Joseph Stern says:
Good lawyers don’t usually tell their clients to defy lawful court orders, especially when jail time is a real possibility. Yet the Liberty Counsel didn’t mind putting their client at risk—perhaps because the idea of a middle-aged woman being hauled off to jail for purportedly following her conscience would send thousands of anti-gay Americans reaching for their pitchforks (and checkbooks).
You can be sure that the couples denied licenses will go straight to the US District Judge David Bunning, who gave the original ruling for her to issue licenses, asking him to enforce his order and a contempt citation is almost sure to follow soon, ‘god’s authority’ notwithstanding.
This is going to get even uglier.
“Good lawyers don’t usually tell their clients to defy lawful court orders”
Lawyers get disbarred for telling their clients to defy court orders.
I want to get some popcorn and a beer, but it’s too early in the day for that. Can’t wait for the next episode. Fortunately I don’t have to wait until next week to find out what happens next. Fines? Jail time? Lions? It’s all so exciting, and it’s real life too!
Lawyers get disbarred for telling their clients to defy court orders.
Not nearly often enough.
She is appealing to a higher authority. Good move on her part, since we all know God
neverfailshis true believers. Same for Liberty Counsel.Xians love their martyrs.
And the best martyrs are always…someone else. They will fight to the last Kim Davis.
The judges have clearly been handling this case with kid gloves and bending over backwards to be fair to her. And it hasn’t worked.
1. I’m sure they expected this. And have planned their next moves in advance. As to what these are, I don’t know the law well enough to guess.
2. While she is laying up brownie points among the rabid xians, she is also turning off a lot of normal people who don’t like elected officials abusing their position for personal and kooky religious reasons.
It’s the whole reason the atheist movement is thriving. Xians have been making atheists since 33 CE.
Governor Beshear is being a coward. He should fire her immediately.
moarscienceplz,
The governor cannot fire her because she is an elected official. She can be impeached or recalled.
Canadian here, with sincere questions about Kentucky and/or the States in general:
1) Is “Clerk” a job title for a “person who carries out administrative government functions”?
2) If so, why is that position elected instead of appointed?
Hypothetically, an elected official can pull this shit during government votes on bills, since they theoretically represent the opinions of their constituency. But if your job is simply to carry out what the government mandates, why does that position need to be elected?
Lesbian Catnip,
This may seem incomprehensible to people in other countries but many purely administrative posts in the US are elected.
Lesbian Catnip, #9: 1) Is “Clerk” a job title for a “person who carries out administrative government functions”?
2) If so, why is that position elected instead of appointed?
My guess is that either county clerks in Kentucky have executive duties beyond being purely administrative, or they used to significant executive duties long ago and they’re still elected because of tradition.