Posted on 09/03/2015 12:01:24 PM PDT by xzins
Kim Davis, a Kentucky clerk who refused to issue gay marriage licenses got some rather bad news today, as a judge held her in contempt and has ordered her to jail.
Here are the details so far.
From NBC News:
A federal judge has ordered a Kentucky clerk to jail after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Kim Davis, a clerk in Rowan County, was found in contempt of court on Thursday morning. She has said granting marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples would “violate God’s definition of marriage” and infringe on her personal beliefs as an Apostolic Christian.
District Court Judge David Bunning has said Davis is bound by an oath of office to perform her duties under the law, and ordered that she be jailed until she complied with his order to grant licenses.
Bunning has upheld the Supreme Court’s decision in June to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, and wrote last month after the contempt lawsuit was filed that the state is merely forcing her to do her job within the law.
Davis, a registered Democrat, had worked as a deputy clerk for 27 years before voters in Rowan County elected her as clerk last November.
As an elected official, she can only be removed in a vote by state legislators, who don’t reconvene in the State House until January. While Davis certainly has the right to not be forced to do something against her conscience and religious beliefs, I feel that her continued refusal hasn’t really helped her cause any.
Rather than allow this get so far out of hand, perhaps she should’ve alerted the media to what was going on and then quit her job, using the exposure she would get from the situation to show her dedication to Christ and the gospel, which would be a super powerful testimony to believers and unbelievers alike.
Davis hasn’t chosen that course of action though, and it’s totally up to her to decide to do what she feels is best. I would’ve refused to issue the licenses as well, and would’ve walked out the door as a result.
Hopefully this will get resolved soon in a peaceful manner.
Prisoner of conscience is probably more accurate. She's not in jail over her political beliefs but her spiritual ones.
People need to go out in huge numbers to support her. If the number of supporters are deemed small the Feds will keep upping the ante.
The judge cited her for contempt of court supposedly because she didn’t show up for the second hearing.
She was in the hallway for the second hearing but didn’t have to be in the courtroom. She was jailed for failing to comply with the order. Judge Bunning said he’s religious too, but his oath trumps his personal beliefs. 5 of the 6 deputies in the Rowan County Clerk’s Office told Bunning that they will issue gay marriage licenses. That will apparently happen today. Even if that happens, don’t believe for a second they’ll leave Davis alone until she says she’ll issue gay marriage licenses. The real agenda is the silencing of dissent.
tomayto tomahto
:>)
Oh, I had no idea that she was elected. Still, the local government needs to take whatever steps through their administrative process. Getting a judge immediately involved and throwing people in jail is screwed up. That doesn’t happen in Congress and we all know how badly they’ve been screwing-off in their jobs.
Continents drift in the time it takes to punish or remove drunken judges and elected Sheriffs that take 3-hour lunches and run the police department via cell-phone from the golf course but this happened like a bolt of lightning. Kinda makes you wonder.
Thank you so much, Brown Deer.
Nor does chapter 402 have a severability clause.
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