Tag: same-sex marriage

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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?

Click to enlarge pic

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.

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Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis Found In Contempt Of Court, Remanded To Custody

In light of Rowan County Clerk’s continued defiance to heed even the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ruled Davis in contempt of court and remanded to custody.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union had requested in their motion for contempt of court that the clerk should be fined, not jailed. The attorneys asked the court to “impose financial penalties sufficiently serious and increasingly onerous” to make her comply with the high court’s order.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning felt differently, and saying Davis’ supporters would pay her fines. And so, U.S. Marshals took her into custody.

According to reports, she can be released if she will allow her deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses.

From CNN:

The clerk, an Apostolic Christian who says she has a sincere religious objection to same-sex marriage, has refused to issue any marriage licenses since the Supreme Court decision in June legalizing same-sex marriage.

Bunning ordered Davis to resume the issuing of marriage licenses on August 12. Monday night, the Supreme Court denied an emergency application from Davis, who asked that Bunning’s order be put on hold pending appeal.

In court papers, attorneys for Davis argued that she is unable to comply with the court orders because issuing same-sex marriage licenses “irreparably and irreversibly violates her conscience.”

The ACLU attorneys, who represent two same-sex couples and two opposite-sex couples who want to get married in Rowan County, argued that Davis has no legal basis to avoid performing her duties as a government clerk.

And a federal prosecutor said it’s time for Davis and her county to comply.

“Government officials are free to disagree with the law, but not disobey it,” U.S. Attorney Kerry B. Harvey said in a statement. “The County Clerk has presented her position through the federal court system, all of the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is time for the Clerk and the County to follow the law.”

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Pat Robertson: Gays Want All Christians In Jail So Get Used To It

Televangelist host of “The 700 Club” Pat Robertson says that “the gays’” ultimate goal is to put rogue Kentucky County Clerk Davis and other gay rights opponents in prison for their stance.

So this whole thing is — putting her in jail and so forth — is nonsense. But it will happen and it’s just the beginning, it’s the warmup of this battle. And I want you to know right now, you’ve heard it here, the gays do not just want to be recognized, they do not want to be accepted, they do not want to have just freedom, they want everybody to agree with them and everybody who doesn’t agree with them and does not comport with their way of thinking, they want to be punished, put in jail, or fined. That’s the way they want it and you might as well get used to it.

(via Right Wing Watch)