Remember The Law is Only Sacred When It Furthers a Liberal Value

realclearpolitics.com ^ | 9/4/15 | David Harsanyi

[cotton1706]

Working for the government is not an inalienable right. So Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, was wrong to refuse same-sex couples marriage licenses in her office. If you're unwilling to enforce the law, you shouldn't be an officer of the state. After all, it's not a clerk's job to ascertain the constitutionality or practicality of a law. If it were, we'd have anarchy. There are hundreds of other vocations she is free to pursue if this one doesn't suit her.

So Davis' stand isn't about religious freedom. Not really. Signing off on state documents is not tantamount to being forced, as bakers and photographers have been, to participate in a wedding ceremony. There are certainly bigots out there intent on coercing Christian businesses to choose between their faith and their livelihood; this isn't one of those instances. If you want to participate in civil obedience, don't work for the state.

But jail? Davis was taken into federal custody Thursday. She was held in contempt of court for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses. She now faces potential penalties, fines and prison time. She will almost certainly be destroyed.

So there are a few things that are worth contemplating here.

Let's start with the prevailing hypocrisy surrounding the attacks on Davis, a Democrat, and what it tells us about the state of American political debate and policymaking in 2015 -- because as you may have noticed, the rule of law only seems to be sacred when it happens to comport with liberal values.

[Old Sarge]

Kim Davis refuses to grant one homo-marriage license: Left screams.

CA Sheriff refuses to approve 7,000 CCW permits: Left is silent.

[Norm Lenhart]

It’s a lesser evil...

[lowbridge]

Bump

[WilliamofCarmichael]

If you're unwilling to enforce the law, you shouldn't be an officer of the state.

I'm hearing a lot of that you must put aside your personal beliefs religious and all.

The old The Nuremberg Defense: "only following orders". What if the gay psychos and supporters pushing all this harassment stuff start ordering the killing of homophobes?

So using Ockham's razor approach it is obvious that the lady need only say that she is doing it in support of Islam. That will immediately scare the gay psychos and the MSM employees. Problem solved.

[P.O.E.]

Civil disobedience used to be a liberal right-of-passage.

[TalBlack]

It’s her job (elected) and it’s as much her damn state as anyone elses. The law prohibits deviant marrage. It is ALWAYS her right not to participate in a black mass.

[wastoute]

We should ask Grassley or Gowdey if there is room in Davis’ cell for Lois Lerner. Maybe even a cell of his own for Holder.

[Timber Rattler]

If you're unwilling to enforce the law, you shouldn't be an officer of the state.

So what Kentucky law is that, Dave?

[Qiviut]

In the end, the state is creating martyrs. Christians will have no choice but to take more obstinate positions in these battles of the culture war -- battles that could easily have been avoided if a judge had exhibited more compassion and come to an accommodation.

*************************************

If she were a Muslim rather than Christian ... think she would have been 'accommodated'?

Moving on - some thought-provoking reading from: The Stupidity of Sophisticates - Mark Steyn:

Right now across the land town and county clerks are resigning because they cannot in conscience issue same-sex marriage licenses. In one Tennessee county, the entire clerk's office has resigned. They are observant Christians - which is to say they hold the same view of marriage that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton claimed to until the day before yesterday. But an observant Christian can no longer work in the American civil service, or at least in those branches of it responsible for issuing marriage licenses:

County Clerk Katie Lang cited religious beliefs as her reason for refusing to file the marriage application for Dr. Jim Cato and his partner Joe Stapleton. She did, however, promise that someone in her office would accommodate the couple.

Not good enough. Dr Cato and Mr Stapleton are suing Ms Lang. What else you got?

A Kentucky clerk of court wants the state to issue marriage licenses online so he doesn't have to...

Monday, Davis tried to meet with Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear to ask him to call for a special session of the state legislature so it can pass a law allowing people to purchase marriage licenses online, similar to the process of purchasing a hunting or fishing license.

That's not good enough, either. Who the hell are you to compare a lesbian wedding to a fishing license?

So observant Christians will no longer be able to serve as town or county clerk. Are comparisons really so "lunatic"? The logic of the 1933 Civil Service Restoration Act is that the German public service will be judenrein. The logic of the 2015 Supreme Court decision is that much of the American public service will be christenrein - at least for those who take their Scripture seriously. That doesn't strike me as a small thing - even if one thought it were likely to stop there.

For some of us, that won't do: what matters is the abandonment of first principles - free speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion and much else - and when that happens you stand against it, because it won't stop there. It never does.

[ReaganGeneration2]

Kentucky law:

402.005 Definition of marriage.
As used and recognized in the law of the Commonwealth, “marriage” refers only to the civil status, condition, or relation of one (1) man and one (1) woman united in law for life, for the discharge to each other and the community of the duties legally incumbent upon those whose association is founded on the distinction of sex.
Effective: July 15, 1998
History: Created 1998 Ky. Acts ch. 258, sec. 4, effective July 15, 1998.

[Texas Eagle]

San Francisco Sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi, who defied federal law and refused to report murderer of Katie Steinle to ICE a month before her murder.

[Skooz]

bfl

[SunTzuWu]

Ask yourself what would happen if Kim Davis was a muslim. Would the court have thrown her in jail or would the court have been understanding about her religious sensitivities, issued the permit themselves and told her to go back to work?

[Crazieman]

Come to Kansas, where we became a CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY state!

Buy a gun, pop it in your pocket, you’re legal!

[Old Sarge]

The thought HAS crossed my mind...

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

OK, so were was this author at when SF Mayor Gavin Newsome ignored CA state law when they passed their homo marriage ban?

[kiryandil]

If you're unwilling to enforce the law, you shouldn't be an officer of the state.

As I understand it, there IS no law - just some Uniparty feral "judge" throwing his weight around.

[MortMan]

Harsanyi has no idea what he is writing.

Or, he likes to see religion used as a weapon against the people.

[sergeantdave]

As usual, the writer is ignorant of what the USSC has ruled in previous cases. The USSC has stated that elected state officials cannot be drafted to carry out federal dictates. If the federal government wants gay marriage, it must supply the bureaucrats to carry out the edicts.

The latest ruling was Printz v US.