"To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God's definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience. It is not a light issue for me. It is a Heaven or Hell decision," [Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis] said through her lawyers.If she can't, in her conscience, do her job, then she should fucking quit.
Or go to jail. Either works.
Caesar has spoken. Start rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's, or go work at Chik-fil-a.
ReplyDeleteThe ACLU running the complaint has elected to ask for fines, not arrest...seems they judge (correctly, I suspect) that her in jail would be a rallying point for the cause. Hopefully, the Liberty morons defending her setup a Go-fund-me account to pay her fines and we can drain some cash from the zealots. It's gonna be fun to watch...but I do feel sorry for those people who have to place their lives on hold to bring this idiot to justice. I know they chose this, but it still stinks.
ReplyDeleteLawrence, Hobby Lobby would probably hire her in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteThe picture captcha was for donuts. They didn't show any cops.
The judge has called a hearing for 11AM Thursday. He has ordered the clerk and all her assistant clerks to appear in court and answer to charges that they are refusing to comply with his order. The judge, not the ACLU, will determine her punishment (or not) for contempt at that point. If she appears in court and is willfully defiant when questioned by the judge, if she repeats the nonsense "I am answerable only to God!" when he orders her once again to issue marriage licenses to any two consenting adults who show up in her office asking for one, if he judges that she will not comply regardless of how much he fines her, she *will* be going to jail. Because there is only one god in a U.S. District Court courtroom, and He answers to the phrase "Your Honor" only.
ReplyDeleteThe hilarious thing is that the judge in question, Judge David Bunning, is a George W. Bush nominee and the son of one of the most conservative senators to ever serve in the Senate, and Daddy was one of the people who recommended him to the Shrubbery, telling the Shrubbery "my kid is as conservative as I am, he'll be great there." But he's conservative in the judicial sense of the word. He's very law-and-order and very attentive to precedent from on high. If the Supremes have said that this is the law, if the Supremes say this is what the Constitution says, this is how he will rule, period. "Judicial activism" is when a judge makes law, and this judge isn't into that, he enforces the law the way the Supremes say to enforce the law, and that's that.
- Badtux the Snarky Law Penguin
Can they at least dock her pay for all of the days she refused to do her job?
ReplyDelete-Doug in Oakland
Doug, she's an elected official. They don't dock the pay of elected officials for not doing their jobs.
ReplyDeleteBadTux is right. Openly defying a judge is never a good move.
If I had to guess, I'd guess that the judge would have the clerks stand by seniority order. He'd ask the first one "are you gong to follow the order of this Court" and if the answer is "no", have the bailiffs hall her off. And then repeat the process until either everyone is in jail or he gets a "yes, Your Honor" from somebody.
This is interesting as it challenges the rule of law.
ReplyDeleteHowever shes already lined up to collect a bundle via the
Rad-Right.
The bottom lines is she has a job and that job come with
responibility to do things. When she signs its not as
that bint as her signature in that capacity is that of
the state/county she represents. Her personal feelings
or religion are not asked nor required. If she cannot
perform the acts of her office its is also her
responsibility to to insure there is someone who can
or again she is failing her responsibility.
Eck!
The money spot might be the first clerk to say yes, who then gets fired in a few months on some trumped up charge. You can get a pretty penny for that afterwards, and the lawyers will be ready.
ReplyDeleteSorry CP,
ReplyDeleteWhile possible, the money I'm thinking of is the
Religious Rad-Right support like paying fines, bail,
tv, talk shows, book tours, the standard 15 minutes.
If she plays it right maybe even not needing to
do honest work for life.
All that because she and by default the RRR will claim
its being persecuted. They need to be real careful as
the law of unintended consequences is likely.
Personally her signature is clerical. Its there to certify
its registered and correct. No different than any public
contract or a building permit. I have to jump through
more hoops for the building permit.
Eck!
The sole reason why Kentucky law requires both participants to appear before the clerk and sign the marriage license in her presence and get her signature on the marriage license is to make sure that nobody is holding a shotgun on the bride and/or groom while they sign the license and that they're both of age to consent to marriage. That's all. And yes, that's a big deal in Kentucky, famous for shotgun marriages and underage marriages!
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't mean the clerk approves of the wedding. It doesn't mean the clerk sanctions the wedding. All it means is that two consenting adults appeared before her and requested a marriage license, she validated that they met the requirements of Kentucky law to receive a marriage license, and that's that.
This clerk is *literally* making a federal case out of a molehill. I don't approve of a lot of things my customers do. But you know, the deal is, they're my *customers*, and whether I approve or not is irrelevant, I'm there to give them service, not to make moral judgements upon them.