Jailed for Not Marrying the Gays
Source: usatoday.com
Five of six deputies in the office of a Kentucky county clerk taken into custody Thursday for her refusal to issue marriage licenses after the Supreme Court allowed gays to wed say they will process the paperwork starting Friday.
But Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, whom U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning found in contempt of court, said through her lawyers that she will not authorize any of her employees to issue licenses in her absence. The judge placed her in the custody of U.S. marshals ready to take her to Boyd County jail.
"My conscience will not allow it," Davis said earlier to Bunning. "God's moral law convicts me and conflicts with my duties."
Among her deputies, the holdout was Davis' son, Nathan Davis. Yet the other deputy clerks had reservations as they individually answered Bunning's questions, some based on religion, like Kim Davis, and others who wondered about their legal authority to sign forms without an elected official's consent.
Kim Davis' lawyers also called into question whether any licenses issued in her absence would be legal.
But Bunning said couples will have to decide whether to take that risk on their own. He indicated that he would lift the contempt charge against the defiant county clerk if deputies began issuing marriage licenses but said he was reluctant to release Kim Davis too quickly because of the possibility that she would stop the process and again try to go through the courts in a sort of ping-pong match.
Allowing Kim Davis, who previously has said she is an Apostolic Christian, to defy a court order could create a ripple effect among other county clerks, Bunning said. Two other clerks in the state also had stopped issuing marriage licenses but have not had lawsuits filed against them.
"Her good-faith belief is simply not a viable defense," said Bunning, who said he also has deeply held religious beliefs. "Oaths mean things."
Bunning's mother said her son, who was raised Roman Catholic, doesn't agree with the idea of same-sex marriage but does believe in upholding the law.
Kim Davis was tearful at times in her morning appearance before the judge but testified that she could not obey Bunning's order because God's law trumps the court.
Before she appeared in court Thursday, she told The Kentucky Trial Court Review that she was prepared to go to jail.
“I would have to either make a decision to stand or I would have to buckle down and leave,” she told the monthly publication in a radio interview. “And if I left, resigned or chose to retire, I would have no voice for God’s word," calling herself a vessel that the Lord has chosen for this time and place.
As word of Kim Davis' arrest circulated outside the federal courthouse in a crowd that numbered more than 100 protesters, cheers and chants erupted.
 Retired steelworker Charles Ramey stands in support of Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis outside the federal courthouse Sept. 3, 2015, in Ashland, Ky. (Photo: Chris Kenning, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal)r |
Those supporting the Rowan County clerk decried the decision with one man falling on the courthouse steps to pray.
"It's very unjust," said the Rev. Randy Smith of Morehead, Ky., where Kim Davis' office is located. "Religious liberty has been trampled on today."
Lawyers inside the courtroom with the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, which is representing Kim Davis, argued that she met a legal test for religious protection under federal law because her convictions created a "factual inability" to issue licenses to same-sex couples.
But lawyers for the couples who have sued her repeatedly pressed the county clerk to admit that her policy is the result of personal choice.
Bunning agreed and said fines for Kim Davis, who makes $80,000 a year, would not be enough to ensure that she would follow his orders. He also raised concerns that supporters would pay any fine he levied, hampering its force.
"I don't do this lightly," he said of his decision to jail her. "It's necessary in this case."
ome thought the move could turn her into a martyr among gay-marriage opponents.
Chris Hartman, head of the Fairness Campaign advocacy group, said he thought the judge would levy fines but hoped that jailing Kim Davis would act as a strong deterrent for others who might refuse to follow the law.
Though the county clerk was tearful as she testified how she came to Christ in 2011 following the death of her mother-in-law, she appeared straight faced as marshals led her out of the courtroom.
Outside, each side continued to clash.
Ashley Hogue, a secretary from Ashland, held a sign outside the courthouse that read, "Kim Davis does not speak for my religious beliefs."
"This is so ugly," she said, wiping away tears. "I was unprepared for all the hate."
Demonstrator Charles Ramey, a retired steelworker, downplayed the vitrol.
"We don't hate these people," he said, holding a sign that read, "Give God his rights." "We wouldn't tell them how to get saved if we hated them."
Kim Davis has been resisting suggestions that her deputies issue the licenses because her name appears on the certificates. But the crux of the contempt case against her involves Kentucky law, which, unlike some states' laws, requires county clerks to issue marriage licenses.
When four couples — two gay and two straight — filed suit against her for refusing to issue marriage licenses after the June Supreme Court ruling, she argued that they could be served in other Kentucky counties. Bunning, son of GOP Sen. Jim Bunning who retired from the U.S. Senate in 2011, told her that she or her deputies must issue the licenses but stayed his order until this past Monday as she filed an appeal with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
When that stay expired, appeals court judges declined to renew it. And when she asked the Supreme Court to weigh in Monday, justices in Washington refused.
"I hope that everyone will remain civil," Bunning said. "This country has always had disagreements, but what makes this country different from other countries is that we respect the rule of law."
Source: usatoday.com
