Kentucky clerk gets jail time

[Gaybutton]

Kentucky clerk gets jail time for failing to issue same-sex marriage licenses

By Eliott C. McLaughlin and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

September 3, 2015

(CNN)A federal judge Thursday ordered Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis to jail for refusing to heed a U.S. Supreme Court order legalizing same-sex marriage, and she will stay there until she complies with the ruling.

Following his decision, U.S. District Judge David Bunning brought Davis' six deputy clerks into the courtroom to find out if they, too, would refuse to issue the licenses. The clerks said they didn't want to be held in contempt of court, and though some had the same religious beliefs as Davis, five of the six told Bunning they would issue the licenses.

Bunning said he would bring Davis back into court at 3:30 p.m., and if she agreed not to interfere with her deputies who issue the licenses, she could be released.

During Davis' hearing earlier Thursday, one witness told the court that the clerk had denied her a marriage license three times, and when Davis took the stand to deliver her at-times emotional testimony, she explained that she could not issue the licenses because of her religious beliefs.

"You can't be separated from something that's in your heart and in your soul," she told the judge, according to CNN affiliate WYMT-TV.

American Civil liberties Union attorneys argued in a motion filed Monday that Davis "continues to collect compensation from the Commonwealth for duties she fails to perform."

They said they didn't want her to be jailed as punishment, but rather, the attorneys asked the court to "impose financial penalties sufficiently serious and increasingly onerous" to make her comply with the court order.

Bunning, however, apparently felt she deserved jail time, but he also told Davis she could end her incarceration by complying with the Supreme Court order and telling her deputy clerks to do the same.

He said he didn't believe fining Davis would convince her to comply with the high court ruling, especially considering that Davis had testified earlier that her supporters are raising funds for her and calling her office to offer financial support, WYMT reported.

Bunning said he, too, was religious, but he explained that when he took his oath to become a judge, that oath trumped his personal beliefs, the station reported.

"Her good faith belief is simply not a viable defense," Bunning said.

Davis thanked the judge for his ruling, according to WYMT. She was not placed in handcuffs, but a U.S. marshal led her out of the courtroom.

Celebrations and protests erupted outside the courthouse in Ashland, Kentucky, when those who attended the hearing exited the courtroom with news of the decision. Chants of "Love won! Love won!" filled the air.

'Her conscience remains unshackled'

Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, which represented Davis, said in a statement he was "stunned" by the judge's ruling.

"Kim Davis is being treated as a criminal because she cannot violate her conscience. While she may be behind bars for now, Kim Davis is a free woman. Her conscience remains unshackled," he said in the statement. "The tragedy is that there are simple ways to accommodate her convictions. Just remove her name from the marriage licenses. That's all she has asked from the beginning. Today's events will escalate this debate to a new level."

Davis, 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.

In court documents filed Wednesday, her attorneys argue that she shouldn't be held in contempt. Instead, they argued, there are alternatives that would allow couples to get marriage licenses in Rowan County without going against Davis' religious beliefs.

Among the options they offered were allowing other officials to issue marriage licenses in the county, distributing marriage licenses at the state level or changing marriage license forms to remove Davis' name.

A seat inside the courtroom was a hot ticket. Before the session began, more than 100 people were turned away from Bunning's courtroom, which holds 300 people. A federal law enforcement source told CNN that because of the controversy surrounding the case, Bunning was provided with a security escort on his way into work Thursday.

'Respect the law; do your job!'

A large crowd, leaning mostly in support of Davis, gathered outside the courthouse before the hearing, many carrying signs. "Jesus Saves" read one, "Homo sex is sin," read another, while one sign pointed passers-by to the Bible's Acts 5:29, which quotes Peter and other apostles saying, "We must obey God rather than human beings!"

Lana Bailey of Worthington, about a 20-minute drive northwest of Ashland, brought signs as well, both of which seemed to address Davis: "My gay friends pay taxes which helps pay you... right??" and "Respect the law; do your job!"

"I'm here to support equal rights for all," she said. "It's just called respect. I don't understand why we're having this. Why are we spending money on this? ... If you can't do your job then you need to step down. You need to resign."

Jason Porter, a pastor at Ashland's Gospel Light Baptist Church, spoke for the other side and said he wasn't at the courthouse "to bash people's decisions and lifestyles," but he worried that if people were allowed to continue doing whatever they want to do, "the floodgates will open to other areas of polygamy."

He did not elaborate on how same-sex marriage was akin to polygamy, which is the act of having multiple spouses. Polygamy is illegal in every state.

Echoing those who cited Acts 5:29, he said he felt Davis had a right to refuse to issue the marriage license and, waving his Bible, he told CNN he bore no hatred toward gay couples and is merely standing "for the truths of my God's word."

"I just know the destruction that this brings. As a pastor, I see the background. I see the broken families. I see the AIDS. I see the folks dying of diseases and the brokenness of relationships," he said.

Lawyers: Issuing licenses 'violates her conscience'

Two other county clerks in Kentucky are also refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses, according to a statement on Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear's website.

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 a statement released Tuesday, Davis, a Democrat, said she has received death threats but intends to continue to serve as the county clerk -- a position she was elected to fill in November.

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."

Finding her in contempt of court, they argued in the motion filed Wednesday, also would "substantially burden Davis' religious exercise."

But some scoff at the clerk, suggesting she's a hypocrite because she's been divorced three times.

Davis said she's a different person now since becoming a Christian four years ago.

"I am not perfect," she said in a statement. "No one is. But I am forgiven."

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."

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/03/polit ... index.html

[lvdkeyes]

This, indeed, GREAT NEWS.

[Gaybutton]

This, indeed, GREAT NEWS.

I agree. My opinion is no matter how sincere or compelling one's religious beliefs might be, you don't get to impose it on others and use it to deny others their rights, especially if you're using a public office to do so. If this lady had lived a few centuries ago, she would have made a perfect wife for Torquemada.

People better figure out that gays are here to stay and now that our rights are being legally recognized, zero tolerance for those who try to remove or diminish them.

[lvdkeyes]

Let's see how long she holds onto her beliefs in prison.

[Gaybutton]

CNN Opinion:
___________

Was it right to jail Kim Davis over same-sex marriage?

By Laura Coates

September 3, 2015

Editor's Note: Laura Coates is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. She is a legal commentator and Lecturer of Law at the George Washington University School of Law. Follow her on Twitter: @thelauracoates The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN) - A federal judge was right to hold in contempt and jail Kim Davis, the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples

Davis has no legal justification to break the law. She is not exercising civil disobedience. She is practicing official misconduct.

Although her religious convictions appear steadfast, her actions are completely unlawful. Her argument is based on the erroneous and naïve premise that the judiciary is powerless when its orders conflict with your personal conscience.

Indeed, nothing can be further from the truth. The history of civil rights and liberties in this country demonstrates that the Supreme Court often acts to force the hand of individuals to promote the greater social good.

As a prosecutor, I couldn't selectively prosecute individuals based on the laws with which I personally agreed. I was sworn to honor and enforce the laws as they were written. As an elected official, Davis can disagree with the laws, but she can't simply choose to disobey them.

She is not a private baker refusing to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples. She is an elected official with limited autonomy, who is required to perform her official duties, not the least of which includes certifying that a couple meets the legal requirements for marriage.

By refusing to issue marriage licenses, Davis is attempting to hold marriage equality hostage. And although she has claimed to be denying licenses "under God's authority," the only duty she is being asked to perform has nothing to do with religion.

She is not being asked to personally condone or philosophically accept homosexuality. She is being asked to confirm whether the applicants meet the statutory criteria for marriage. And, under state law, and the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in June, the applicants do in fact meet that criteria.

Contrary to her attorney's belief, the Kentucky Religious Freedom Act doesn't salvage her case. It's true that the state cannot unduly burden her religious beliefs on a whim. But it is also true that the state can subordinate your personal beliefs if there is a compelling state interest and the state is using the least restrictive means to carry out its objective. The state simply requires her signature on a form, not a profession of personal acceptance. It doesn't get any less restrictive than that.

Davis demanded even more -- not only should she be allowed to not issue licenses, no one in her office should be allowed to, either, because her name may still be on the document. It's the equivalent of the sophomoric idea: "If I can't do it, nobody can."

There is absolutely no requirement whatsoever that the state must revamp its licensing system to accommodate her personal beliefs. To do so could lead to the inefficient domino effect, with every person passing the hot potato while trampling on applicants' civil rights.

In an amicus brief, Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers had the audacity to ask the District Court to "temper its response" to Davis and not judge her too harshly until the state laws and mindset had a chance to catch up to the Supreme Court's mandate. This request would be laughable if it weren't so reminiscent of the southern states' arguments in Brown v. Board of Education that led to a mandate of school desegregation with "all deliberate speed."

Time revealed that the vague mandate enabled states to take their sweet time enforcing the laws. In fact de facto segregation in our nation's schools persists to this day because the court allowed states to legally lollygag. This case is no different.

We may be one nation under God, but we are a democracy under the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court.

Alas, despite her contempt of the law, Davis can't simply be fired. Because she is an elected official, she has to be impeached by the state legislature and tried by the state senate, in what is often a protracted and lengthy process. Fining her, while expected and indeed advocated by her opponents, may ultimately have come at the taxpayers' expense. Score one for Davis. But, as we saw today, Davis can be jailed, like any other criminal who breaks the law.

Score one for justice.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/03/opini ... index.html

[RichLB]

Just to shine a light on this poor woman's real religious convictions, Check this out:

(Her) marriages are documented in court records obtained by U.S. News, which show that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis divorced three times, first in 1994, then 2006 and again in 2008. She gave birth to twins five months after divorcing her first husband. They were fathered by her third husband but adopted by her second. Davis worked at the clerk’s office at the time of each divorce and has since remarried. If your head is spinning trying to piece all of that together, let me try to break it down for you. She was cheating on her first husband (committing adultery – which is punishable by stoning in the Bible) with the man who would eventually become her third husband; though her second husband ultimately ended up adopting the children who were the result of her adultery; she then later went on to marry her third husband who is the biological father of the twins conceived of her extramarital affair. Meanwhile, all three marriages ultimately went on to end in divorce. Then she got married for a fourth time. Where’s Jerry Springer when you need him? You really can’t make this stuff up.

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/mess ... hypocrite/

[Gaybutton]

After Kim Davis is jailed, clerk's office issues marriage license to gay couple

By Ed Payne and Jason Hanna, CNN

Fri September 4, 2015

(CNN) - With the clerk who had refused them in jail, William Smith Jr. and James Yates on Friday morning became the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in Rowan County, Kentucky.

Pressing through a throng of reporters, Smith and Yates picked up the marriage license they'd been seeking since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in June.

They emerged holding hands shortly after the courthouse opened at 8 a.m., as opponents booed and supporters cheered and chanted, "Love wins!"

"We're just really ... happy right now to finally get married and have it recognized here," said Yates, who proposed to Smith this summer after a nine-year relationship.

It was the first time that the eastern Kentucky county issued a marriage license to a same-sex couple, with County Clerk Kim Davis refusing on multiple occasions -- including Smith and Yates five times, they say -- on religious grounds.

But a federal judge ordered her to jail Thursday, ruling that she was in contempt of court for not issuing the licenses.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning said Davis would remain behind bars until she complies. Davis' supporters say she intends to remain in jail at least until there is a compromise.

Mat Staver, Davis' attorney, told CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" that his client would issue licenses if her name and title were not on them.

"Because that in her understanding and mind is authorizing something that is contrary to her Christian values and convictions," he said. "That's where the conscience rub is."

Davis' husband, Joe, told reporters Friday that his wife was willing to remain in jail until the state government allows her to keep her name off the licenses.

"As long as it takes," Joe Davis said. "Hopefully (Gov. Steve) Beshear will have the guts to do his job."

Kim Davis has said she couldn't go against her Christian values. In her absence, five of her deputies agreed to issue marriage licenses, allowing Smith and Yates -- and any other couple -- to pick theirs up Friday.

Full story: http://us.cnn.com/2015/09/04/politics/k ... index.html
________________________________________________________________________________________

Kentucky clerk's office issues marriage license to gay couple, ending ban

Fri Sep 4, 2015

By Steve Bittenbender
Morehead, Ky.

The county clerk's office in Kentucky that had refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in defiance of orders by a federal judge ended its resistance on Friday morning.

While Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis was jailed on Thursday for refusing to follow the orders of U.S. District Judge David Bunning, her deputies processed a license for James Yates and William Smith, who had previously been denied one five times, after the clerk's office doors opened on Friday.

Davis, who has become a darling of social conservatives, had refused to issue any marriage licenses under an office policy she created after the U.S. Supreme Court in June made gay marriage legal across the United States, citing her beliefs as an Apostolic Christian.

Yates and Smith, who held hands entering and exiting the building, paid $35.50 in cash for the license. Deputy clerk Brian Mason, who had a sign in the office reading "marriage license deputy," shook their hands and congratulated them.

As Yates and Smith exited the building, supporters chanted "Love has won!" Yates said all he wanted to do was hug his parents.

"We were more optimistic today," Yates said, when asked if the couple had been nervous about their sixth attempt to get a license. They now have 30 days to get married, and he said they had two dates picked out, depending on when guests can attend.

Off to the side, a Davis backer holding a bible preached against homosexuality.

It was the 100th marriage license issued by the clerk's office this year and the first one since the Supreme Court ruling. Last year, the clerk's office issued 214 marriage licenses.

Emotions have run high on all sides as Davis and an attorney for one of the four couples who sued the county clerk said they had received death threats. A Kentucky legal trade publication reported the judge had also received a death threat.

Outside the Morehead, Kentucky, courthouse where the clerk's office is located, there were about 40 demonstrators, far fewer than the 200 or so who showed up on Thursday in Ashland, the site of the federal courthouse where Davis was found in contempt and jailed.

Davis' husband stood outside the courthouse on Friday morning, holding a sign that read, "Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah." He said his wife was in good spirits after her first night in jail, adding she had no plans to resign and was prepared to remain in jail for as long as she felt necessary.

"We don't hate these people," he told reporters. "That's the furthest thing from our hearts. We don't hate nobody. We just want to have the same rights that they have."

Describing himself as an "old country hillbilly" with an 11th grade education, Davis said he knew more about the law than most because he worked in corrections. He said he disagreed with the Supreme Court's June ruling.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/ ... S220150904

[Alex]

After Kim Davis is jailed, clerk's office issues marriage license to gay couple

Great news. So since she cannot be dismissed, it's probably best to just keep her in jail in order to prevent her from interfering with her law-abiding deputies.

[lvdkeyes]

Seems to me that she could be impeached since she is an elected official.

[Gaybutton]

Seems to me that she could be impeached since she is an elected official.

I doubt it will happen. What she was doing certainly merits impeachment, but there are two problems. One is the process can take a very long time, a year or more. The other is in that area the religious right is so dominant that getting enough votes to impeach, let alone convict, is virtually out of the question.

If she wants to be a martyr, fine with me. As long as she's rotting in jail, scratch one homophobic bigot. Now that her office is issuing marriage certificates, my guess is it won't be long until she's a forgotten footnote in history. Of course, if she does relent and comes out of jail, would it come as any surprise if she's elected as the next governor of Kentucky? How about Senator Kim Davis? If certain presidential candidates actually get elected, maybe it'll be Supreme Court Justice Davis. Nothing surprises me anymore.

Repent all ye sinners . . .