Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Politics, Religion, Society, Supreme Court

County Clerk Who Refuses To Issue Marriage License To Gay Couple Says She Will Remain In Jail, So Be It.

By Darren Smith Weekend Contributor

kim-davis-mugshotAfter the Rowan County Kentucky Clerk, Democrat Kim Davis, defied a court order to issue gay couples marriage licenses, and was subsequently arrested by the U.S. Marshal’s Service and jailed, her husband stated that she chose to remain in jail rather than compromise her religious beliefs by performing her statutory duty. Her contempt of court ruling will stand until she resumes issuing such licenses and thus in jail she shall remain.

And so it should.

The issue is not the content of her religious beliefs that are on trial. It is that of failure to perform her duty and denial of a civil right as mandated by the Supreme Court. For this reason she has two choices: being in contempt indefinitely; or resigning her position. For the near term it is as simple as that. If she continues her defiance, a third party must step up, show some leadership, and make the decision for her by ejecting her from office.

 

When a politician takes an oath of office upon their swearing in they affirm to uphold the constitutions of their respective states and that of the United States, and that they will discharge also their statutory and common law duties mandated by the legislature and the state’s courts. This is not an optional recommendation, it is conditional of receiving the position and taking salary and benefits. In this case Ms. Davis knew, as a second generation politician to her mother’s thirty seven year tenure as the former county clerk, what these duties encompass. The excuses she made to justify her failure to perform on her duty are 100% irrelevant whatever they might be, religious, personal or otherwise. Her authority does not include usurping the legislature and the courts to suit her own goals.

Ms. Davis, through her attorney, claimed that a compromise can be made by the removal of her name from the certificates of marriage granted to those couples she objects to. This also is completely unacceptable. The duality of this settlement offer is that she previously stated the certificates issued by her deputy clerks, in her absence, were void.

The authorization official charged with issuing marriage licenses is that of the County Clerk, and from working convention is usually performed by a deputy delegated and commissioned through this authority. If Ms. Davis chooses to remove her name from the form, the marriage license could be contested as being invalid since it was not assented to by the county clerk. For this reason she implored the governor to call the legislature into a special session to amend the statutory language to facilitate the compromise that would be agreeable to this one individual politician–at a cost of course of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The hubris and arrogance she exudes on that demand alone certainly should be enough cause for the legislature to impeach her or the voters to generate a recall. If this becomes necessary to remove her from office a failure to act upon this by either entity and allow this usurper to remain in office would be a true embarrassment to themselves in the eyes of a great many.

Anecdotally, all of us who have worked in an official capacity know that sometimes you cannot do what you like. We cannot legally make arbitrary actions that are outside the law. To do so leads straight to corruption and an erosion of the system and the liquidity of society. The result is almost always a patchwork of patronage and differing rules and the abandonment of trust in the public that ultimately grants the government its legitimacy. The controversy is this, we stop malfeasances of office now before they lead to worse.

Not only that but in addition to moneys wasted in salary payable to an incarcerated elected official–who is unable to perform her job–it is all but certain expensive lawsuits alleging violations of civil rights will result. It is an outcome frankly the county government deserves.

Ms. Davis clearly wants to have her cake and eat it too. She reportedly takes an $80,000.00 salary along with benefits. In addition, she has family members within the employ of her office. This is why I personally find political dynasties to be in direct conflict with democracy, because it almost always leads to nepotism at least and despotism at worse. The Rowan County Clerk’s Office seems a great family business for the Davis family because that is how she seems to choose to operate it. But as the Rolling Stones famously sang…

It is time that Kim Davis “gets what she needs”…termination of her employment.

By Darren Smith

Source:

CNN

The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.

254 thoughts on “County Clerk Who Refuses To Issue Marriage License To Gay Couple Says She Will Remain In Jail, So Be It.”

    1. “Resign? Kim Davis? And let go of an $80K government tit suckling job?”

      What ever happened to privatization and efficiency in government?

      Give me 5 clerks and I will sign my name for a mere $40k a year. For a small signing bonus, I will even practice up on my calligraphy.

      OK, that was mean. But who can feel sorry for Davis eating hot dogs and beans in the county hoosegow?

      Along with sugar plum fairies, she must be dreaming of book contracts, interviews, and a made for TV movie – maybe a speaking tour. What does a good conservative, religious fundamentalist get for a speech these days?

  5. RSA
    Was MLK Jr a civil servant who was publically elected?
    Because that’s what Kim Davis is… FYI.

  7. Max, as you said, I can only imagine what conservosphere and Fox News would do if this county clerk were a Muslim denying marriage licenses to people based on their “sincerely held belief” or “conscience”. This country is not a Theocracy, the law of God ( whichever one you happen to worship) does not usurp the Supreme law of the land, the Constitution.

  8. Rosa Parks went to jail because she stood against supressed Rights…
    … Kim Davis is in jail because she suppressed other people’s Rights.

  11. Annie,
    But to the Anti-Supreme Court support group, they’re ‘activist judges’…

  12. Maineuh
    1, September 6, 2015 at 12:57 pm
    Boy, I miss Professor Turley’s objective broad view of the issues on weekends. Smith tends to latch onto a position and dance off gloating with it, which is the opposite of why I come here. Easy solution, I guess – skip the days when Smith is at the helm. I don’t have a horse in this Kentucky clerk race, but if I want to find objective discussion on the matter, I have to skip the commentary and head right for the comments. Always a good balance in there, anyway.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/03/is-clerk-kim-davis-a-hero-or-villain/

    Here are Professor Turley’s thoughts on this case.

    1. ” I miss Professor Turley’s objective broad view of the issues on weekends. ”

      Thanks Annie for bringing our attention to Turley’s ‘objective broad view’ on this issue:

      “The only question that remains is whether clerks like Davis want to continue in office. Davis does not have to be a clerk any more than she would have to be a bus driver or a schoolteacher. If she has a moral conflict with her duties, she has a principled avenue of resolution: She can resign.”

  13. Arne Rosenstock
    The Nation should be taking Rosh Hashana off and celebrate Makar Sankrant…
    … And imagine fasting for the Ramadan.

  14. I don’t think SCOTUS so much “created” a right, rather it recognized that the right belonged to everyone.

  16. InalienableWrites: Right to marriage is not the issue I was addressing. The issue I’m addressing is the one characterized in my closing. When the atheists come for Christmas Day as a Federal Holiday violating the separation of church and state doctrines this pick and choose hypocrisy of the people and its government with respect to the practice of religious freedom will hopefully resolve. The business establishment has successfully minimized the place of Jesus in Christmas so ,to quote the ‘Broad’, “What difference does it make, anyway?” I personally did not have any opinion in the matter because the day off was no skin off my hide. However, since homosexual marriage conflicting with religious convictions has come front and center, I look forward to the eventual challenge, should it come when it will come. As for the word ‘gay’, it used to carry the connotation of lighthearted and happiness. Now it’s used as a descriptive shroud for sexual preference, because the proper name has yet to be ‘outed’. It obviously remains an embarrassment to those who are so proud of being ‘gay’, not withstanding the notion that ‘the truth will set you free.” As far as I’m concerned, a rose, by any other name, is still a rose.

  18. Sorry Fiver but my great grandparents were not married by the state. They completed a private contract by signing their names in the family bible as did most of their generation. Regardless the state does not create a right and you do not need the state to complete the contract of marriage.

    No need for apologies. Most people aren’t married by the state. The state only determines whether a marriage will be recognized in the law.

    And the law often involves marital determinations. They are certainly involved in a contested divorce; in determining next of kin for decisions when one “spouse” is medically incapable; in determining whether one “spouse” has an insurable interest in the other; or when a spouse dies intestate and the kids and widow don’t agree on property division. And the law has been making these determinations for millennia.

    It’s great that you don’t need the state for your marriage, but other people who get married do things like get divorced, get insurance, have kids, or die and generally prefer to have the law take the marriage into account in addressing these things.

    If you don’t, that’s your decision. Marriage, even gay marriage, is not mandatory.

  19. Nick
    It is good to see you dropped your “Kim Davis is a secret Democrat” meme today…

  20. Nick
    “… but some folks just never got out of middle school.”
    = = =
    Then graduate already!

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