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Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, right,
talks with David Moore following her
office's refusal to issue marriage
licenses at the Rowan County
Courthouse in Morehead, Ky.,
Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015. Although her
appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was
denied, Davis still refuses to issue
marriage licenses. (Photo: Timothy
D. Easley, AP) |
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Kentucky
clerk
won't
accept
gay
marriage
deal,
goes to
jail
By Adam
Beam
Associated
Press
ASHLAND,
Ky. - A
federal
judge
ordered
a
defiant
county
clerk to
jail
Thursday
for
refusing
court
orders
to issue
marriage
licenses
to gay
couples,
but five
of her
deputy
clerks
later
agreed
to
follow
the law,
setting
up
possible
resolution.
U.S.
District
Judge
David
Bunning
said he
had no
choice
but to
jail
Rowan
County
Clerk
Kim
Davis
for
contempt
after
she
insisted
that her
"conscience
will not
allow"
her to
follow
federal
court
rulings
on gay
marriage.
"God's
moral
law
conflicts
with my
job
duties,"
Davis
told the
judge
before a
federal
marshal
escorted
her out.
"You
can't be
separated
from
something
that's
in your
heart
and in
your
soul."
The
judge
then
sought a
resolution
that
would
keep
Davis
out of
jail
after
all. He
told her
six
deputies
that
they are
free to
follow
the law,
overruling
an
objection
from her
lawyer,
who
argued
that
they
can't
act
against
the
clerk's
authority.
All but
the
clerk's
son,
Nathan
Davis,
later
promised
to
comply.
The
judge
said
that
neither
Nathan
Davis
nor his
mother
would
have to
be
jailed
as long
as the
others
issue
licenses
to both
gay and
heterosexual
couples.
He then
ordered
that Kim
Davis be
returned
to his
courtroom,
and said
she
would go
free as
long as
she
agrees
not to
interfere.
"Her
good
faith
belief
is
simply
not a
viable
defense,"
Bunning
said,
noting
that
allowing
an
individual's
beliefs
to
supersede
the
court's
authority
would
set a
dangerous
precedent.
"I
myself
have
genuinely
held
religious
beliefs,"
the
judge
said,
but "I
took an
oath."
"Mrs.
Davis
took an
oath,"
he
added.
"Oaths
mean
things."
Hundreds
of
people
chanted
and
screamed,
"Love
won!
Love
won!" as
word
reached
the
dueling
crowds
outside.
Davis is
being
represented
by the
Liberty
Counsel,
an
organization
that
advocates
in court
for
religious
freedoms.
Before
she was
led
away,
Davis
explained
that the
U.S.
Supreme
Court's
ruling
in June
that
legalized
gay
marriage
nationwide
conflicts
with the
vows she
made
when she
became a
born-again
Christian.
"I
promised
to love
Him with
all my
heart,
mind and
soul
because
I wanted
to make
heaven
my
home,"
Davis
said,
telling
the
judge
how she
became a
Christian.
April
Miller,
who has
been
denied a
marriage
license
four
times by
Davis or
her
deputies,
testified
that she
voted
for Kim
Davis
and has
no
desire
to
change
the
clerk's
personal
beliefs,
but
wants to
be
treated
equally
in the
community
where
she
lives.
One of
the
deputy
clerks
told her
to apply
in a
different
county,
but
"that's
kind of
like
saying
we don't
want
gays or
lesbians
here. We
don't
think
you are
valuable,"
she
said.
The
judge
later
questioned
each of
the
deputy
clerks,
and
produced
promises
of
compliance
from
five of
them.
"I don't
really
want to,
but I
will
comply
with the
law,"
said
one,
Melissa
Thompson.
"I'm a
preacher's
daughter
and this
is the
hardest
thing
I've
ever had
to do in
my
life,"
she
added.
"I don't
hate
anybody
... None
of us
do."
Davis,
an
Apostolic
Christian
whose
critics
mock her
for
being on
her
fourth
marriage,
stopped
issuing
licenses
to all
couples
after
the
Supreme
Court
ruling,
and the
courts
consistently
ruled
against
her
since
then.
But many
supporters
have
rallied
around
her,
including
Republican
presidential
candidates
Mike
Huckabee,
Ted Cruz
and
Bobby
Jindal.
"People
are
calling
the
office
all the
time
asking
to send
money,"
she
testified.
"I
myself
have not
solicited
any
money."
Davis
said she
hopes
the
Legislature
will
change
Kentucky
laws to
find
some way
for her
to keep
her job
while
following
her
conscience.
But
unless
the
governor
convenes
a costly
special
session,
they
won't
meet
until
next
year.
"Hopefully
our
legislature
will get
something
taken
care
of,"
Davis
told the
judge.
Until
then,
the
judge
said, he
has no
alternative
but to
keep her
behind
bars as
long as
she
refuses
to
follow
the law.
"The
legislative
and
executive
branches
do have
the
ability
to make
changes,"
Bunning
said.
"It's
not this
court's
job to
make
changes.
I don't
write
law."
Davis
served
as her
mother's
deputy
in the
clerk's
office
for 27
years
before
she was
elected
as a
Democrat
to
succeed
her
mother
in
November.
As an
elected
official,
she can
be
removed
only if
the
Legislature
impeaches
her,
which is
unlikely
in a
deeply
conservative
state.
Judge
Bunning
is the
son of
Jim
Bunning,
the Hall
of Fame
pitcher
for the
Detroit
Tigers
and
Philadelphia
Phillies
who
served
two
terms as
Kentucky's
junior
U.S.
Senator.
Former
Republican
President
George
W. Bush
nominated
David
Bunning
for a
lifetime
position
as a
federal
judge in
2001
when he
was just
35 years
old,
halfway
through
his
dad's
first
term in
the
Senate.
But
Bunning
has been
anything
but a
sure
thing
for
conservative
causes,
ruling
in 2007
to
overturn
a
partial-birth
abortion
ban, and
in 2003
to allow
a
Gay-Straight
Alliance
to meet
on their
high
school
campus.
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