Nuptial Dispute
Clerk imprisoned
A county clerk was held in contempt of court and jailed after refusing to abide by a judge's ruling in September. Kim Davis, the elected clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, maintains that issuing marriage licenses to gay couples violates her religious beliefs as an Apostolic Christian. But in the wake of this summer's Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the country, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ruled that she did not have a choice.
"Our form of government will not survive unless we, as a society, agree to respect the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions, regardless of our personal opinions," Bunning wrote. Davis' response was to turn away all couples seeking marriage licenses from her office, gay and straight alike. She also refused to allow her deputies to sign the certificates because, she said, the licenses would still go out under her name. When asked on camera whose authority she was operating under, Davis answered, "God's authority."
Following the contempt ruling Davis spent five days behind bars, during which time Rowan County's deputy clerks resumed issuing marriage licenses. Davis' lawyers have asked that her name be removed from the certificates, but as of press time Gov. Steve Beshear had declined to call a special session of the legislature to explore that or other accommodations.
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Nuptial Dispute."
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
If the judiciary is concerned with respect for themselves as an institution maybe they should not make rulings that inspire contempt.
Nuptial Dispute
Clerk imprisoned