Clerk’s attorney: Marriage licenses are void

Several gay couples served Friday by office deputy clerks.

A jailed Kentucky clerk asserted that marriage licenses issued without her authority Friday to gay couples are void and “not worth the paper they are written on” because she didn’t authorize them, her attorney said.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis now wears an orange jumpsuit and “has already been doing Bible studies with herself ” in jail, her attorney Mat Staver of the conservative legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel told reporters after meeting with her behind bars. He said Davis was in very good spirits, and was prepared to stay in jail as long as it takes to uphold her religious freedoms.

“She’s not going to resign, she’s not going to sacrifice her conscience, so she’s doing what Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about in his Letter from the Birmingham Jail, which is to pay the consequences for her decision,” Staver said.

Staver said he’s preparing to appeal U.S. District Judge David Bunning’s contempt finding as one of several legal challenges on Davis’ behalf.

At least three gay couples received marriage licenses Friday from one of Davis’ deputies, embracing and celebrating after having been turned away repeatedly before Davis was jailed on Thursday.

Their attorneys, along with Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins, maintained the licenses are valid. Bunning said Thursday he did not know if they were, but he but ordered them to be issued anyway.

Marriage licenses in Kentucky usually have the elected clerk’s signature on them; those handed out Friday lacked any signature.

William Smith Jr. and James Yates, a couple for nearly a decade, were the first through the door when the office opened Friday morning. Deputy Clerk Brian Mason congratulated them, shook their hands and accepted their fee of $35.50. Yates then rushed across the courthouse steps to hug his mother.

“Civil rights are civil rights and they are not subject to belief,” said Yates, who had been denied a license five times previously.

As they left, a crowd of supporters cheered while a street preacher rained down words of condemnation. Yates and Smith said they were trying to choose between two wedding dates and planned to have a small ceremony.

Davis had refused to issue any marriage licenses rather than comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June legalizing gay marriage nationwide. After ordering her to jail, the judge told her six deputy clerks that they too faced potential fines or jail time if they also refused. All but one — the clerk’s son, Nathan — agreed to end the church-state standoff.

Two more same-sex couples purchased marriage licenses Friday.

Bunning offered to release Davis if she promised not to interfere with her employees issuing the licenses, but she refused.

Davis’ husband, Joe, who came to the courthouse Friday holding a sign saying “Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah,” said his wife was in good spirits after her first night in jail. Asked if she would resign, he said, “Oh, God no. She’s not going to resign at all. It’s a matter of telling Bunning he ain’t the boss.”

Bunning indicated Davis would remain in jail at least a week, saying he would revisit his decision after the deputy clerks have had time to comply with his order.

Staver called on the judge as well as Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear to make “reasonable accommodations” so that Davis can keep her job without violating her beliefs as an Apostolic Christian. He suggested that with an executive order, Beshear could change all the forms in Kentucky so that none require a clerk’s signature or say that they’ve been issued under a clerk’s authority.

Kentucky lawmakers won’t meet until January, unless the governor calls a costly special session, and when they do, they say they will have many changes to make to adapt the state’s civil code to the Supreme Court’s ruling.