Kentucky clerk cites God, defies courts
Critic of gay marriage faces jail, fines
morehead, ky.» Invoking “God’s authority,” a county clerk denied marriage licenses to gay couples again Tuesday in direct defiance of the federal courts and vowed not to resign, even under the pressure of steep fines or jail.
“It is not a light issue for me,” Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis said through her lawyers. “It is a Heaven or Hell decision.”
Davis, an Apostolic Christian, stopped issuing all marriage licenses in June rather than comply with the Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage nationwide.
Gay and straight couples sued, saying she should fulfill her duties as an elected official despite her personal religious faith. U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered her to issue the licenses, an appeals court affirmed that order, and the Supreme Court on Monday refused to intervene, leaving her no legal option to refuse. And yet she did. “Stand firm,” Davis’ supporters chanted as a tense standoff erupted in the lobby.
“Do your job,” marriage equality activists shouted back.
Davis retreated into her inner office, closed the door and shut the blinds. The sheriff moved everyone outside, where demonstrators lined up to shout and sing at each other.
Davis knows she faces stiff fines or even jail if the judge finds her in contempt, her lawyer said. Her supporters compared her Tuesday to the biblical figures Paul and Silas, imprisoned for their faith and rescued by God.
But the couples’ lawyers asked that she not be sent to jail and instead be fined, because she currently collects her salary — $80,000 a year — while failing to perform her duties. They asked the judge to “impose financial penalties sufficiently serious and increasingly onerous” to “compel her immediate compliance without delay.”
Bunning ordered Davis and her six deputy clerks to appear before him Thursday morning at the federal courthouse in Ashland.
Davis also faces a potential state charge of official misconduct, a misdemeanor meant for public servants who refuse to perform their duties. Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, now running as the Democratic nominee for governor, is studying a complaint filed by a couple she turned away and will decide whether to appoint a special prosecutor.
Davis said she never imagined this day would come.
“I have no animosity toward anyone and harbor no ill will. To me this has never been a gay or lesbian issue. It is about marriage and God’s Word,” her statement said.
Her critics mock this moral stand, noting that Davis is on her fourth husband after being divorced three times.