Breaking News…

Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis is going to jail!

Kentucky clerk gets jail time for failing to issue same-sex marriage licensesCNN
By Eliott C. McLaughlin, Sonia Moghe and Catherine E. Shoiche
September 3, 2015

Ashland, Kentucky (CNN)A federal judge Thursday ordered Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis to jail for refusing heed a U.S. Supreme Court order legalizing same-sex marriage, and she will stay there until she complies with the ruling.

During the hearing, one witness told the court that Davis had denied her a marriage license three times, and when Davis took the stand, the clerk explained that she could not issue the licenses because of her religious beliefs.
[…]
U.S. District Judge David Bunning, however, apparently felt she deserved jail time, but he also told Davis she could end her incarceration by complying with the Supreme Court order and telling her deputy clerks to do the same.

They wanted a martyr, now they have one to rally around the flag. The Christian far right wanted someone to rally around and now they have.

Many are claiming that her religious rights are being violated; she is being force to issue same-sex marriage licenses against her religious beliefs. There are a number of politicians who are saying that the rights of one group should not diminish the rights of another. I have a question for those politicians who are saying that, would it be alright then for a clerk to refuse a marriage license for an interracial couple? Would it be alright for a clerk to refuse to file divorce papers?

The U.S. District Attorney said “Government officials are free to disagree with the law, but not disobey it.” Another point, she swore on a Bible to uphold the U.S. Constitution, not to uphold Bible.

I also wonder how much she if being driving into her position.

Is Kentucky’s Infamous Anti-Gay Clerk Getting Taken for a Ride by Her Lawyers? Slate
By Mark Joseph Stern
August 31, 2015

Davis’ application to the Supreme Court is less an application for a preliminary injunction than a sententious protest against Obergefell. It accuses the Obergefell majority of “redefining” marriage—a staple of right-wing argot—three times. It sneers that the ruling was decided by a bare “5-4 majority.” It quotes, extensively and approvingly, the Obergefell dissenters’ ominous warnings about the apocalyptic clash between marriage equality and religious freedom. And, in case you didn’t get the point, it actually refers to “same-sex ‘marriage’ ”—complete with contemptuous scare quotes around “marriage.”

It would be easy to write a story mocking the application’s histrionics and thinly veiled animus. But quite frankly, I’m growing a bit concerned about Davis’ lawyers. Davis is being represented by the Liberty Counsel, a far-right fringe group that specializes in anti-gay litigation. (Naturally, it is also a Christian ministry and a tax-exempt nonprofit.) Founder and Chairman Mathew D. Staver has used Davis’ case to raise money and boost publicity for his group, going so far as to hold a rally for Davis. In his spare time, Staver has continued to participate in the Faith and Freedom radio show; in recent weeks, he has described the newly gay-tolerant Boy Scouts as “a playground for pedophiles” and compared acceptance of Obergefell to turning over a Jew to the Nazis.

Law firms regularly use sexy cases to increase their own profiles, and it’s perfectly fine to bandy about your client to further a constitutional cause. (Gay rights litigators do it all the time.) But Staver is taking things too far. The first sign of trouble arose early in the case: When a federal judge ordered Davis to issue licenses or be held in contempt of court, the Liberty Counsel advised her to disobey the ruling. Good lawyers don’t usually tell their clients to defy lawful court orders, especially when jail time is a real possibility. Yet the Liberty Counsel didn’t mind putting their client at risk—perhaps because the idea of a middle-aged woman being hauled off to jail for purportedly following her conscience would send thousands of anti-gay Americans reaching for their pitchforks (and checkbooks).

I also wonder if this could be the reason behind her stand, did they find a willing person to make a stand as a rallying focal point? And now she is in jail.

Update 9:00PM

Candidates repossess to the jailing of Kim Davis the New York Times reports that,

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said on Thursday that Ms. Davis jailing was an act of “judicial tyranny,” and in a statement he called on “every Believer, every Constitutionalist, every lover of liberty to stand with Kim Davis.”

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told CNN, “I think it’s absurd to put someone in jail for exercising their religious liberty.”

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas said on Twitter that he would go to Kentucky on Tuesday to support Ms. Davis. “We must end the criminalization of Christianity!” he wrote.

But not all the candidates thought that way,

At least three candidates, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Carly Fiorina, the former Silicon Valley executive, said that as a government employee Ms. Davis was obligated to carry out the law, despite personal religious objections.

In a radio interview on Tuesday, Ms. Fiorina, who has been forceful about the rule of law, said, “Is she prepared to continue to work for the government, be paid for by the government, in which case she needs to execute the government’s will, or does she feel so strongly about this that she wants to sever her employment with the government and go seek employment elsewhere where her religious liberties would be paramount over her duties as a government employee?”