Posted on 09/04/2015 9:57:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
We’re in a weird place as a party when Trump, the would-be strongman who’s going to smash sclerotic American government as we know it, is more of a “rule of law” guy than Ted Cruz is. And way, way more of one than Mike Huckabee is.
Trump prefers an accommodation in which gay couples can get their licenses, as the Obergefell ruling requires, and Davis can opt out so that she’s not involved in something that violates her religious beliefs. But she doesn’t want to opt out. She wants to force the whole office to opt out by forbidding her deputies from issuing licenses without her approval. As recently as yesterday, during her contempt hearing, her lawyers were warning people that marriage licenses issued today by her staff (there have already been two as of 10:30 a.m. ET) while she’s in jail won’t be valid because they lack her signature as county clerk — and she might not be wrong about that. What she’s doing, as Charles Cooke put it, isn’t so much seeking a conscientious objection for herself as demanding a right of secession for Rowan County from the post-Obergefell legal regime. Cruz and Huckabee seem okay with that. Trump evidently isn’t.
“The other simple answer is rather than going through this, [because] it’s really a very, very sticky situation, a terrible situation — 30 miles away they have other places, they have many other places where you get licensed, and you have them actually quite nearby,” Mr. Trump said. “That’s another alternative. I hate to see her being put in jail. I understand what they’re doing. It would be certainly nice if she didn’t do it, but other people in her office do it but from what I understand she won’t allow other people in her office to do it.”
Bottom line, host Joe Scarborough said, is that if Supreme Court makes a decision, that’s the law of land, right?
“You have to go with it,” Mr. Trump said. “The decision’s been made, and that is the law of the land.”…
“She can take a pass and let somebody else in the office do it in terms of religious, so you know, it’s a very … tough situation, but we are a nation, as I said yesterday, we’re a nation of laws,” he said. “And I was talking about borders and I was talking about other things, but you know, it applies to this, also, and the Supreme Court has ruled. It would be nice to have other people in her office do what they have to do.”
Smart point, but the Cruz/Huckabee take on this is that a “lawless” Supreme Court opinion doesn’t count as “law” the way a statute does. Cruz, at least, knows better, but it’s in his political interest to push that argument. I’m curious to see if he comes after Trump over this at one of the debates, sensing that it’s a rare chance for him to out-populist Mr. Populism. If he does, Trump should come back: Who gets to decide which court opinions are sufficiently “lawless” that they needn’t be enforced? We’re left with Trump, the alleged revolutionary, standing up for the long tradition of judicial review while more mainstream GOP pols argue that that tradition has been so discredited by left-wing double standards that conservatives should take the same a la carte approach to law enforcement. Let every county clerk go their own way. In hindsight, Obama should have cited his, ahem, deep religious convictions as grounds for granting executive amnesty.
Exit question via a Twitter buddy: How come no one’s standing up for the conscience rights of Davis’s deputy clerks? What if one of them enthusiastically supports gay marriage and wants to issue licenses in Davis’s stead? The state’s telling Davis that she has a duty to obey Supreme Court rulings and she’s telling her deputies that they have a duty to obey her personal religious beliefs. Why is the former less legitimate than the latter?
Trump stopped the Trump express. But don’t count on it. His worshipers will forgive him and throw believers under the bus to save him Dem style.
Judges have the legal power to hold people in contempt.
In the Christian side, Jesus has the victim of trials that had false witnesses and false charges. He subjected himself to authority because that authority was placed over Him by God. This woman’s authority, the judge is also placed over he by God.
Trump does not want to “fix” gay marriage
You got that right.
Trump should state as much. I believe it would add to his poll numbers.
Why should Trump care? He is not a Christian. His God is Trump Towers
Kentucky Revised Statute 402.020 Other prohibited marriages (1)Marriage is prohibited and void (d)Between members of the same sex. This is the law. Still on the books. I don’t know which law Trump is talking about either. County clerks across the state are in violation of KRS 402.02(1)(d) when/if they issued marriage licenses to same sex couples.
True... but there are some who place social issues at the top of their agenda yet support Trump.
Have the states ever delegated to Congress, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to make a law legalizing things like gay marriage?
Low-information citizens like Trump who are clueless that corrupt judges are legislating gay marriage from the bench is why a good citizen like Ms Davis is in jail in the first place imo.
Remember, pro-gay activist federal judges know that they can get away with legalizing gay marriage from the bench because they know that the corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification Senate is not willing to work with the House to remove them from the bench for doing so.
The ill-conceived 17th Amendment needs to disappear, and corrupt senators and actvist judges along with it.
Why are these people so dense? Did they ever take 7th grade American Government? Do they not understand how a law is made?
“Trump is the only candidate running that wants to do something to stop the exporting of jobs and the importing of criminals.”
Sure he is. Right. Mkay.
Well, isn’t the judge is in violation of Kentucky law by jailing Kim Davis for trying to uphold Kentucky law?
No?! Really?
His God is Trump Towers
amazingly SImilar... to the tower of BABBLE!!
Look I criticize Trump all the time, but he is right. The law is the law. The law sucks, the Supreme Court was wrong, but they've ruled and until we replace the justices (circuit, appeals and SCOTUS) so we get right minded decisions we are going to have to put up with laws we don't like.
Davis is taking a stand. It is one worth taking, but civil disobedience and acts of lawbreaking to stand for something important do come with consequences.
What I hope this will do is remind voters (and perhaps Trump) how important court nominations are and get the candidates to focus on how we can start putting good justices in place if/when we win.
Trump and a Democrat Congress will work well together.
Trump supporters hate the GOP, there is no way they want a GOP Congress
Oh come on! The American public did not rise up in any meaningful fashion when the SCOTUS RULED Gay Marriage is the Law of the Land. This isn’t Trump’s fight, this is Kim’s and I hope she wins but as with obummer, Hope doesn’t Change anything.
I hate to see the mayor and city council of San Francisco being sent to jail but the law is the law...
Make that KRS 402.020(1)(d)
The Dred Scott decision was the law too, Don.
Did that make it right?
“What law?”
Exactly.
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