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“How ironic that God would use a person like me, who failed so miserably at marriage in the world, to defend it now.
“The Lord picks the unlikely source to convey the message.”
– 4x married Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis to the Associated Press regarding her journey this past year denying same-sex couples a legal marriage license because she disapproved.
Right Wing Watch has the details:
Mat Staver, the Liberty Counsel attorney who is representing Kentucky clerk Kim Davis during her ongoing refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses, appeared on the “WallBuilders Live” radio program today, where he said that requiring Davis to issue such marriage licenses is like requiring her to provide licenses to “sodomize children.”
“A clerk provides licenses to do something,” Staver explained. “A license to operate a motor vehicle on the road, a license to build a particular facility or a license to do this or a license to do that or a license to operate a business. So that person is licensing someone to do something and in this case, they’re licensing what? They’re licensing something that is directly contrary to the core of their religious convictions, to engage in sinful activity among same-sex relations and sanction something that is contrary to the Scriptures and that is marriage of two people of the same sex.”
“To force someone like that to give a license for something that will legalize, that will put a stamp of approval on something that is absolute rebellion against God, sinful, then that is a direct collision of unprecedented magnitude,” he continued, saying that requiring Davis to do her job is like requiring her “to grant a license to engage in pornography, to grant a license to sodomize children or something of that nature.”
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U.S. District Judge David Bunning has released rogue County Clerk Kim Davis from custody on the condition that she not interfere with the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples by her deputy clerks.
Should she interfere, the judge threatens “appropriate sanctions,” whatever those might be.
The judge also calls for Status reports every 14 days from the deputy clerks on the compliance with the court’s order.
The HRC issued this statement upon her release:
“It is imperative that Kim Davis follow the law and allow same-sex couples to access their constitutional right to marry the person they love. Period,” said HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “While Davis has the right to believe whatever she likes, as a public official she has no legal basis to refuse to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The overwhelming majority of public officials across this country are following the law, and history will not judge her kindly. It’s far past time for this needless ordeal to end.”
Not sure what’s next. Will bat-shit crazy Kim Davis interfere? Will she get fined or thrown back in jail?
Tune in next time – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
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There may be a complication with the marriage licenses being issued to same-sex couples today in Rowan County as the licenses have no County Clerk’s name on them.
Rather than be filled in with the name of an authorized deputy Clerk, the blank usually reserved for the County Clerk merely says “Rowan County.”
Via Buzzfeed:
Brian Mason, the deputy clerk who issued the license to the couple minutes before, told BuzzFeed News that Davis’s name had appeared in that field in all 99 licenses issued before the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision in June. “Her name goes there, yeah,” Mason said. “But she is not here. I don’t have her permission. I don’t have her consent.” He would not comment on who instructed him to replace her name with the words “Rowan County.”
However, Chief Deputy Roberta Eaerly told BuzzFeed News, “As a group we decided to issue [the licenses] from Rowan County.”
Asked what gave staff the authority to omit Davis’s name, Earley said, “I have no other comment.”
Mason told BuzzFeed News that in Thursday’s contempt-of-court hearing, Judge Bunning acknowledged it was unclear if licenses issued without Davis’s authority were valid. “That is why the judge said marriage licenses may not be valid,” Mason said. “We don’t know. No one could give us an answer.”
UPDATE: According to Yahoo News, Kim Davis asserts that the marriage licenses issued today are “not worth the paper they are written on” because she didn’t authorize them, her attorney said.
The Rowan County attorney and lawyers for today’s couples say Davis’ claims are incorrect.
It’s coming to a head in Rowan County, Kentucky, today.
Last night, the U.S. Supreme Court denied County Clerk Kim Davis’ request for an emergency stay on the ruling by a federal judge which compels her to do her job and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Davis refuses to do so based on her “deeply religious” beliefs. Although, I’m not so certain her religious beliefs are all that deep in that she has apparently been married four times herself, so divorce doesn’t seem to bother her.
It was reported yesterday that one of the gay couples who have tried to obtain a marriage license three times has now filed a lawsuit against Davis and Rowan County in federal court over the issue.
By refusing to follow a federal court order to do her job as County Clerk, Davis now faces contempt charges.
Watch the video below as a gay couple attempts to apply for a marriage license and Davis refuses. The short video cuts off as call to “Call the police!” begin.
The U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis’ request for a stay on a federal judge’s ruling that would require her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Via the Courier-Journal:
“The application for stay presented to Justice (Elena) Kagan and by her referred to the Court is denied,” the order said.
Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th district, referred Davis’ request to the full court, which denied the stay without comment.
A stay issued earlier by U.S. District Judge David Bunning expired Monday.
In a separate development, the Kentucky attorney general is mulling whether to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether she violated the state official misconduct statute when her office refused to issue a license to a Rowan County gay couple.
Official misconduct is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 365 days in jail.
Done and done.
Do your job, Kim Davis.
UPDATE:
The Human Rights Campaign issued this statement:
“Ms. Davis’ choices are clear: she must either choose to follow the law or resign her public position. A public official’s personal religious opinion does not give her the privilege to trample over the rights of others. Freedom of religion is important, and Ms. Davis has the fundamental right to believe what she likes. But as a public servant, she does not have the right to pick and choose which laws she will follow or which services she will provide. We are pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied the stay.”
And the ACLU had this to say:
“Today the U.S. Supreme Court resoundingly affirmed that government officials must carry out the duties of public office. By refusing to simply issue a form, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has prevented our clients, four loving couples, from obtaining marriage licenses in the county where they live and pay taxes. Davis has no basis for any further delay in denying couples the freedom to marry.”
Some news stories you may have missed:
• It’s time for Monday Men At Work (see above)
• The gay couple in Rowan County, Kentucky, who have been denied a marriage license three times have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the county government and County Clerk Kim Davis.
• A man with a 19″ penis says it makes working and having a social dating life impossible.
• Fox and Friends host Elizabeth Hasselbeck doesn’t understand why the #BlackLivesMatter movement hasn’t been named a “hate group.” Seriously.
• Five HIV+ men offer advice to their younger selves about surviving and thriving post-diagnosis.
• Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis is running out of time and options in her fight to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Time to do your job, Ms. Davis.
• Ellen DeGeneres announces GapKids x ED, a new collection for Gap Kids that is for every girl no matter “whether they skateboard or dance, wear dresses or jeans, build forts or paint rainbows, or everything in between.”
The hits just keep coming for anti-gay Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in Kentucky.
Official misconduct charges have been referred to the Kentucky Attorney General by the Rowan County government against Davis late Friday afternoon.
From the Lexington CBS affiliate:
The Rowan County Attorney’s Office said on Friday that it has referred to the Attorney General’s Office a charge of official misconduct against Davis. A release from the county attorneys office says Kentucky Bar Association “Rules of the Supreme Court of Kentucky prohibit the Rowan County Attorney’s Office from prosecuting Davis” because they are involved in current litigation with Davis.
“Typically, the attorney general’s office refers conflict cases to a prosecutor from another county,” the release says.
The release says Rowan County Government and the Rowan County Attorney’s Office cannot take any other action against Kim Davis.
“Kentucky state government is the only entity that can move to have Kim Davis removed as Rowan County Clerk,” the release says.
A spokeswoman for the attorney generals office told WKYT they are looking into the matter.
According to Morehead News:
Official misconduct in the first degree is a Class A misdemeanor and is punishable with imprisonment not to exceed 12 months and fines of $500.
Official misconduct in the second degree is a Class B misdemeanor and carries a potential punishment of up to 90 days imprisonment and fines of $250.
The charge must be tried in court before a designation of first or second degree is placed upon it.
Davis, who has been married four times, refuses to issue marriage licenses to gays and lesbians over her “deeply held religious beliefs.”
“Religious beliefs” that clearly don’t cover the issue of divorce.
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| Kentucky County Clerk Casey Davis |
Although Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has gotten most of the headlines lately over refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, she’s not the only Kentucky county clerk to do so.
Casey County Clerk Casey Davis recently appeared on a local Kentucky radio show and said he’s prepared to die over his right to deny gay couples a marriage license.
“Our law says ‘one man and one woman’ and that is what I held my hand up and took an oath to and that is what I expected.
“If it takes it, I will go to jail over — if it takes my life, I will die for because I believe I owe that to the people that fought so I can have the freedom that I have, I owe that to them today, and you do, we all do.
“They fought and died so we could have this freedom and I’m going to fight and die for my kids and your kids can keep it.”
You can listen to Davis via Right Wing Watch below:
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| Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis (R) |
Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis lost today at the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in her request for a stay regarding a lower court’s ruling which compels her to issue marriage licenses to her constituents.
The lower court issued a temporary stay on it’s ruling to give Davis time to request the stay at the Sixth. That temporary ruling is set to expire on August 31st.
There is virtually no chance that SCOTUS will even take the request, let alone grant it.
“The injunction operates not against Davis personally, but against the holder of her office of Rowan County Clerk.
“In light of the binding holding of Obergefell, it cannot be defensibly argued that the holder of the Rowan County Clerk’s office, apart from who personally occupies that office, may decline to act in conformity with the United States Constitution as interpreted by a dispositive holding of the United States Supreme Court.
“There is thus little or no likelihood that the Clerk in her official capacity will prevail on appeal.”
The day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses in her county. No one, straight or gay, can obtain a marriage license in her county today.
Davis refuses to issue marriage licenses to gay or lesbian couples based on her ‘deeply held religious beliefs.’
It should be noted that her ‘religious beliefs’ don’t seem to affect her ability to marry and divorce. Davis is currently on her 4th marriage.
Yeah, she’s really worried about the “sanctity of marriage.”