By Darren Smith Weekend Contributor
After 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
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davidm2575,
The only injustice here is the court’s decision to jail Kim Davis in lieu of providing reasonable accommodation under Title VII.
Anything else is overreaching.
Palsey Schultze,
Having adopted the principle that all officials who refuse to carry out their lawful duties must be put in jail, I’m keen to read your posts about jailing city officials who refuse to follow federal immigration law in creating sanctuary cities.
Courts do not make law – They judge law as to ‘Continue or Stop’ –
In this instance the ‘Law’ was judged as a ‘Full Stop,’ the language is wrong, therefore correct the language before you continue. Until such time as the language of the law is corrected, their is no clear and conscience guidance nor authority to issue marriage licenses. You may think the statute says something, but until it can be read to reflect the opinion of the court, what you think it should say is irrelevant. Mrs. Davis is correct . .
Gavin Newsom and many other liberal pols issuing gay marriage licenses when they were illegal. I’m still waiting on that. Newsom beatified for breaking the law, Davis vilified. Hell, this could be an OED definition of hypocrisy.
It is painfully obvious no one here has run a business. I am talking about SALARY. If you are paid a salary, be you POTUS, a DMV clerk, a minister, a CEO, or a McDonald’s employee, you pay taxes on that salary. This thread is edifying. Not only do liberals not understand government, they don’t understand rudimentary economics/taxes.
Got that, Olly. Boo-yah!!!
Churches can deny gay marriage; government has to recognize it. Separate realms is a strength of our country, articulated starkly in the First Amendment.
Davis, as an elected official, represents the business of all who live in that county. If she can’t or won’t do her job, she can resign in protest. She doesn’t have the right to dictate her version of morality as if it’s federal policy.
Dave wrote: “Churches can deny gay marriage; government has to recognize it.”
Who says that government has to recognize same sex unions as marriage? Our Constitution gave that authority to the States and to the people. The people voted and said they will not recognize it. The Supreme Court has NO AUTHORITY under the Constitution to change that power. It would take a Constitutional Amendment to give the federal government power to regulate marriage, and we do not have that.
PEOPLE NEED TO DISOBEY THE SUPREME COURT ON THIS ISSUE IF THEY LOVE THEIR CONSTITUTION!
Most “churches” are not churches they are 501c3’s and government having created them can dicate just about anything to them. Hobby Lobby make this juvenile mistake.
Dave wrote: “She doesn’t have the right to dictate her version of morality as if it’s federal policy.”
Kim Davis is not dictating her version of morality. She is respecting the rule of law as voted upon by the people of her State. The federal government needs to stop dictating their version of morality upon the rest of us or they will find that they are ruling without the consent of the governed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/09/02/why-kim-daviss-refusal-to-issue-same-sex-marriage-licenses-is-legally-different-from-a-sanctuary-citys-refusal-to-cooperate-with-federal-immigration-law/
Thanks to a commenter on mike Appleton’s thread for posting this.
“Davis and others may feel that Obergefell was wrongly decided. For the sake of argument, let’s assume she is correct. (As they say, the Supreme Court is not final because it’s always right; it’s right because it’s final.) Davis may have been within her rights to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses until she became subject to a lower court order directing her to do so. Now that she is subject to such an order, however, she has an obligation to comply, or face potentially significant sanction. Local officials who create sanctuary cities, on the other hand, face no such legal jeopardy, because they are under no obligation to implement or enforce federal law. And that is how our system works.”
Praise Jesus that in America, churches pay no taxes, too. But Jesus loved the taxman…
Kim Davis appeals court order, again. (Nick should gave predicted that too) 🙂
Kentucky clerk who refused same-sex marriage licenses starts new appeal
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0R60UY20150906
Paul C.: “Some illegals get money back from the feds when they file their income tax, more than they paid.”
Said the man who never cites anything beyond wikipedia.
Actually, big corporations take in far more money than they pay in taxes
Jesus Christ – Yes the Fraud Jesus Christ.
First, it is Jesus the Christ.
Second, I hate Wikipedia and complain about it all the time. However, in a pinch, I have used it and have owned up to it.
Third, if you really were Jesus the Christ you would know this.
Paul C
I don’t understand. I’ve shown two different marriage certificates from her office. One signed by her (the transman video) and the certificate dated just days ago signed by Brian Mason. So, what gives? They do/don’t have her as a stamp?
Max-1 – I just know that all records here must be signed by the County Clerk, regardless of who actually does it.
Now that’s hilarious. Not even I am buying that.
This troll fest was predicted 8:37a. But hell, it was quite predictable.
EVERYONE has to pay taxes. LOL! It is incredible to me just how ignorant people are of a government they love. To think that a DMV clerk is the same as a governor is mind boggling. But yes, EVERYONE has to pay taxes if they receive an income.
Nick Spinelli – only 43% of the population pay federal income tax. Now, in one way or another we all pay some kind of tax. But a minority of us pay federal and state income taxes. Surprise, surprise!!! Some illegals get money back from the feds when they file their income tax, more than they paid.
Olly, I’m not a Trump lover. But, I said on another thread, those Dem mayors of sanctuary cities will have their prissy asses in Federal holding cells like Dem Kim Davis if Trump is ever elected.
Nick,
If these people were standing on principles then their arguments might hold water. However, they will not commit an answer regarding sanctuary cities that would show them to be the hypocrites that they are.
http://www.irs.gov/Government-Entities/Federal,-State-&-Local-Governments/Classification-of-Elected-and-Appointed-Officials
“Generally, any individual who serves as a public official is an employee of the government for whom he or she serves. Therefore, the government entity is responsible for withholding and paying Federal income tax, social security and Medicare taxes, and issuing Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, to a public official.”
Nick
You showing up on Tuesday?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/COJu9lKUkAU1III.jpg
Paul C.
Watch the damn video instead of playing dumb… :42.
Or are you suggesting someone forged it?
Max-1 – I am saying that everything from the County Clerk’s office has the signature of the County Clerk. However, she never gets out of her office. The signatures are all stamps.