Today the US Supreme Court turned down the request of Rowan County clerk Kim Davis for a stay of US District judge David Bunning’s ruling that she has to issue marriage licenses to all qualified couples, including same-sex ones, pending a hearing on the merits of her case by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. That court had already turned down her request for a stay on the grounds that her appeal was unlikely to be successful.
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So here’s an update on the seemingly never-ending saga in Kentucky where three of the 120 county clerks are refusing to issue licenses for people to get married because they oppose same-sex marriage. One of them, Kim Davis of Rowan County, was sued by four couples (opposite sex and same sex) who had been denied licenses and lost her case on August 12 in the federal District Court. But on August 19, the judge David Bunning temporarily stayed his order, saying “IT IS ORDERED that the Court’s temporary stay of its August 17, 2015 Order shall expire on August 31, 2015, absent an Order to the contrary by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.” [Boldface in original but my italics-MS]
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I have been following the case of Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky who has refused to let her office issue marriage licenses to all couples because of her opposition to same-sex marriage. She was, of course, sued, and a federal judge threw out her claim that her religious rights were being violated, and ordered her to issue licenses.
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Despite the ruling by a federal judge that she is required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Kim Davis, the county clerk of Rowan County in Kentucky, continues to refuse to do so because she says her religious beliefs preclude committing any action that suggests approval of same–sex marriage. The judge has allowed her to continue doing so pending a ruling on an emergency appeal by her to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. I am not sure why the judge allowed this since it is almost certain that she will lose her appeal. Maybe he just wanted to avoid having her and her supporters scream that they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs.
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Last week, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the state’s death penalty was unconstitutional. The state had already passed a law in 2012 outlawing the death penalty but the eleven people who were already on death row were not exempted. The Supreme Court’s action means that their lives too will be spared. In the past 54 years, only two people have actually been executed in the state and they both volunteered for it. Connecticut becomes the 17th state to eliminate the death penalty and the fifth in the last five years.
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The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against a baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, arguing that baking a cake was an artistic act and that by forcing him to do so, he was being subjected to forced speech, thus violating his First Amendment rights. The court disagreed.
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You may recall Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, whom I have been writing about because she refused to let her office issue all marriage licenses because she objected to doing so for same-sex couples since, of course, Jesus told her she would be a bad girl if she did so. Naturally she was taken to court and just today, US District Judge David Bunning, who is described as a “conservative judge who was appointed by President George W. Bush”, ruled that she had to comply. Despite that, a couple said that they had been turned away again this morning.
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On Monday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected an attempt by Mary Fallin, the Republican governor of the state, to reconsider its earlier ruling that the presence of the Ten Commandments monument on the capital grounds violated the state constitution and had to be removed, with the chief justice John Reif writing, “We carefully consider the arguments of the commission and find no merit warranting a grant of rehearing.”
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday in the case of Stormans Inc v. Wiesman that the state of Washington’s rules that require pharmacies to issue emergency contraceptives irrespective of their owner’s religious beliefs are constitutional.
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As was inevitable, someone has been taken to court for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and using god as a defense. In a US district court, Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, got all teary-eyed as she explained why her faith required her to deny couples a right they were entitled to by law. (This Davis is different from Casey Davis, a clerk in another county who also refuses to issue licenses.)
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