Tag: same-sex marriage

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Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver: Forcing Kim Davis To Do Her Job Is Like Asking Her To License Child Rape

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 Bunning Releases Kim Davis From Custody

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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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Kentucky Gov. Beshear Says Kim Davis’ Conflict Is “Between Her And The Courts”

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear

Rogue County Clerk Kim Davis continues to cool her heels in the hoosegow in Rowan County as her lawyers file an motion to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals appealing her contempt of court charges.

Her lawyers have also asked Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear to “exempt” her from having to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples until the state legislature can convene in January and perhaps pass legislation removing the names of county clerks from marriage licenses.

Beshear’s answer was to say he has no intention of responding to the request saying the conflict was a “matter between her and the courts.”

Most legal analysts say Davis’ team has little to no chance of receiving any kind of respite from the 6th Circuit.

In other “Kim Davis” news – the much anticipated crowd-sourcing campaign to raise money for Davis was launched over the holiday weekend, but so far it hasn’t grown into the vast windfall other anti-gay folks have seen. At this writing the fund has raised less than $6,000.

I guess Davis will have to look to a book deal to make her martyr millions.

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Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsome Schools An Erroneous Mike Huckabee

Gavin Newsome

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has a new line in his support for rogue county clerk Kim Davis.

Huckabee compares Davis to Lt. Governor Gavin Newsome of California for issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples for a short period of time back when he was Mayor of San Francisco.

Huckabee asserted on ABC’s “This Week” that Davis should obey the law “if it’s right,” comparing her decision to withhold marriage licenses to same-sex couples to Newsome’s defiance of Proposition 22.

“It is that the ruling class has thumbed their nose at the the very Constitution,” Huckabee said. “You’ve got Democrats who ignored the law when it was the law to have traditional marriage, Gavin Newsom in San Francisco as major, performed same-sex weddings even though it was illegal. Did he ever get put in jail? He most certainly did not.”

The difference, of course, is because when a court ordered Newsome to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples – he did.

The California Lt. Governor was not having any of Hucky’s trolling.

Check out Newsome’s tweets to the Huckster:

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Ohio Gov. John Kasich: Kim Davis Should Follow The Law

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (easily one of the more moderate, sane voices in the current group of Republican White House hopefuls) spoke to George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, and said that he disagreed with Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis and her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples:

“The court has spoken, the court has ruled as everyone knows. I believe in traditional marriage but the court has ruled.

“When we see these kind of battles going on I get a little bit afraid that it turns people off to the idea of faith in God, what it means to be a Christian. For me, it’s given me a solid foundation to deal with the strong winds in life, to be a better person, a better guy.

“Now I respect the fact that the lady doesn’t agree, but she’s also a government employee. She’s not running a church. I wouldn’t force this on a church but in terms of her responsibility I think she has to comply. I don’t like the fact that she’s sitting in a jail—that’s absurd as well—but I think she should follow the law.”

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With No County Clerk’s Name On Rowan County Marriage Licenses, Are They Valid?

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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.

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Husband Of Rogue County Clerk: “She’s Not Going To Bow Out”

(image via screen capture)

Standing in front of the Rowan County Court House, the husband of rogue County Clerk Kim Davis defended his wife, who had spent her first night in jail for refusing to follow the law and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered Davis’ deputy clerks issue the licenses beginning Friday morning to whoever applied for them.

Bunning offered to release Davis if she promised not to interfere with her employees issuing licenses, but she refused.

Holding a sign that says “Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah,” Joe Davis said his wife would not resign from her position and would stay in jail for as long as it takes. “She’s not going to bow out,” said Davis.

(source)

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Rowan County Clerk’s Office Begins Issuing Same-Sex Couples Marriage Licenses

In what will hopefully by the final scene in a drama long drawn out by one woman’s ego, the Rowan County Clerk’s office began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

From the Lexington-Herald Leader:

James Yates and William Smith Jr. paid $35.50 and filled out paperwork early Friday to become the first couple to get a marriage license in Rowan County since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage June 26. Another couple soon followed.

With Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in jail on civil contempt charges for defying a judge’s order to resume issuing licenses, deputy clerk Brian Mason ended the office’s two-month license ban by politely serving Yates and Smith on Friday, even congratulating them and shaking their hands afterward.

“Love won!” marriage equality protesters shouted outside the Rowan County courthouse as the men emerged.

Rowan County Judge-Executive Walter “Doc” Blevins passively watched the crowds chanting and singing, and the news crews doing live stand-ups, and said he wished “it would all end soon.”

“If Kim will just agree to come back and do her duty, then she would get out of jail,” Blevins said. “The keys to her cell are in her own hands. But I don’t think she’s going to back down.”

After their 6th try, Smith and Yates leave the Rowan County Court House with their marriage license
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Fox News’ Todd Starnes: “The Federal Government Has Started Incarcerating Christians”

Immediately after County Clerk Kim Davis was ruled in contempt of court and taken into custody today for repeatedly breaking the law and defying not only a Federal Judge but the U.S. Supreme Court,  Fox News’ resident right-wing jackass tweeted out the above.