Tag: same-sex marriage

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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)

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County Clerk Kim Davis: “If I Left I Would Have No Voice For God’s Word”

Before heading into court this morning, anti-gay Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis gave an “exclusive” interview with extreme right-wing Fox News reporter Todd Starnes.

Here’s just a bit of what Ms. Davis had to say:

“I’ve weighed the cost and I’m prepared to go to jail, I sure am.”

“This has never been a gay or lesbian issue for me. This is about upholding the word of God.”

“This is a heaven or hell issue for me and for every other Christian that believes. This is a fight worth fighting.”

“I would have to either make a decision to stand or I would have to buckle down and leave. And if I left, resigned or chose to retire, I would have no voice for God’s word.”

“I’m very steadfast in what I believe. I don’t leave my conscience and my Christian soul out in my vehicle and come in here and pretend to be something I’m not. It’s easy to talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?”

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Kentucky: Deputy Clerks Would Issue Marriage Licenses But Are Afraid Of Kim Davis

According to Shannon Ragland at Kentucky Trial Court Review, Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis is acting on her own in regard to her noncompliance to the ruling on same-sex marriage by SCOTUS.

In an interview with Cecil Watkins, the Rowan County Attorney, Watkins said that deputy clerks would issue lawful marriage licenses, if allowed. But Davis has made them afraid to do so.

Watkins added that if Judge Bunning instructs them to do so, they will.

Watkins also said Davis has put her employees and everyone in the courthouse in a “terrible position.”

(h/t JMG)

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Kentucky: Lawmakers Request Judge Withhold Action Against County Clerk Until Legislative Session

Kentucky state Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker Greg Stumbo have repeated their request to Governor Besmear to call a special session of the state legislature so they can pass legislation that would resolve the current issue regarding Kim Davis and issuing marriage licenses.

In addition, Stivers filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge David Bunning to wait until the legislature can convene before taking action against Ms. Davis.

Governor Besmear again declined to call the legislature into session, saying Davis is defying the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The General Assembly will convene in four months and can make statutory changes it deems necessary at that time. I see no need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money calling a special session of the General Assembly,” Beshear said.

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Justice Scalia: Public Officials Have To Do Their Job Or Resign

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Many feel the only path forward for Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis is to resign her post so she, not the state, can accommodate her religious beliefs.

Jonathan Adler, of the Washington Post, has found a surprisingly high profile judge who agrees that public officials cannot decline to perform their duties based on the official’s personal view of morality.

That judge? No less than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

In 2002, Scalia explained that if he were to conclude that the death penalty is fundamentally immoral, he should no longer serve on the bench:

[I]n my view the choice for the judge who believes the death penalty to be immoral is resignation, rather than simply ignoring duly enacted, constitutional laws and sabotaging death penalty cases. He has, after all, taken an oath to apply the laws and has been given no power to supplant them with rules of his own. Of course if he feels strongly enough he can go beyond mere resignation and lead a political campaign to abolish the death penalty” and if that fails, lead a revolution. But rewrite the laws he cannot do.

The upshot being that public officials don’t get to rewrite the rules of their duties.

While Scalia has not addressed the specific issue of Kim Davis’ refusals to do her job, he noticeably did not dissent from the recent denial for an emergency stay when requested by Davis’ lawyers.

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MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki Takes On County Clerk’s Lawyer Anti-Gay Mat Staver

I watch Hardball every day. Right before this segment aired, Kornacki teased Staver’s appearance. I tweeted to Hardball that there better be someone to present the LGBT perspective on this continuing story.

Turns out we didn’t need anyone other than guest host Steve Kornacki, who appropriately handled anti-gay Liberty Counsel lawyer Mat Staver.

Staver repeatedly stated Davis’ “religious freedom” must be “accommodated.”

Kornacki didn’t hold back, citing Davis’ clear hypocrisy.

“If she says she has a moral and religious objection to same-sex marriage I think it raises the question, does she have a moral and religious objection to a divorced person getting re-married? Does she have a moral and religious objection to someone who’s engaged in premarital relations getting married? Where does this end?”

Watch below.

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Dan Savage On County Clerk Kim Davis: “This Is About Someone Hypocritically Cashing In”

Columnist and LGBT activist Dan Savage appeared on MSNBC last night to share his thoughts regarding the ongoing – and hypocritical – refusal by Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

This appearance came shortly after US News and World Report published shocking revelations that Davis, who has been divorced three times, actually gave birth to children fathered by her third husband while she was married to her first. It gets very complicated I know.

Via Raw Story:

“I think Kim Davis is waiting to cash in,” Savage told MSNBC. “I predicted from the beginning that she would defy all the court orders, defy the Supreme Court, she would ultimately be held in contempt of court, lose her job, perhaps go to prison for a short amount of time. And then she will have written for her, ghost written books. She will go on the right-wing lecture circuit and she’ll never have to do an honest day’s work ever again in her life.”

“This is about someone hypocritically cashing in, and she is a hypocrite,” he added.

Savage referred to the defiant clerk’s statement complaining that courts were asking her to “violate a central teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself regarding marriage” — which the columnist dismissed as ridiculous.

“This is a woman who’s been divorced three times and married four times,” he said, reading from the US News & World Report article that pointed out Davis “gave birth to twins five months after divorcing her first husband, (and) they were fathered by her third husband but adopted by her second husband.”

“She’s now onto her fourth husband,” Savage said. “Jesus Christ himself in scripture condemned divorce, called it adultery and forbids it. Jesus Christ himself in scripture says not one word about same-sex marriage.”

I’ve written here on The Randy Report for sometime that while folks are paying attention to the surface of this story – the issuance of marriage licenses – this is actually about Davis looking for a windfall of money via crowdsourcing campaign by anti-gay haters as we’ve seen in the past with pizza makers, florists and bakers. Along the way, Liberty Counsel and other haters get a new face of martyrdom in Davis.

Davis and her full office of deputy clerks have been summoned to federal court Thursday morning regarding possible contempt of court charges.

The American Civil Liberties Union, advocating on behalf of a male same-sex couple repeatedly denied a marriage license by Kim Davis’ office, is asking that U.S. District Judge Bunning not jail Davis but levy fines significant enough to compel her compliance.

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John Corvino: “Religious Liberty Is Not A ‘Get Out Of Your Job Free’ Card”

John Corvino pens a guest op-ed for the Detroit Free Press on the current mess Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis has created for herself.

Some highlights:

As a gay-rights advocate — and a gay man myself — I support her right to live in accordance with her religious convictions, even if that means not issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

What I don’t support is allowing her to continue collecting paychecks for an $80,000 a year state job which she declines to perform. If her conscience renders her unable to issue marriage licenses to those legally qualified, then the right thing for her to do is resign.

[snip]

In asking the court to grant Davis a religious exemption, her attorneys compared her to a conscientious objector being forced to go to war, for example, or an opponent of capital punishment being forced to participate in executions.

But these analogies fall flat. Unlike the conscientious objector, Davis is not being drafted into service against her will. She has chosen a job that requires her to grant licenses in accordance with civil law. She is no longer willing to do that.

[snip]

Private citizens are free to express their religious views about homosexuality — however hypocritically and inconsistently — and to practice their faith as they see fit. But religious liberty is not a “get out of your job free” card.