Kim Davis Is Winning
.... Welp, Kim Davis and her lawyers just tussled with a federal judge, and they pretty much whooped him.
To review what’s happened so far: Shortly after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in June, Kim Davis instructed the employees in her office to stop issuing marriage licenses, whether for gay or straight couples. She maintained that signing her name to same-sex marriage licenses would be a violation of her religious beliefs, and since she’s the Rowan County clerk, this would include any license from the office that carried her name. In the middle of August, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered Davis to start issuing marriage licenses again. Davis refused to comply. Last Thursday, Bunning held her in contempt of court, and Davis spent Labor Day weekend in jail.
On Tuesday, though, Bunning reversed course.
After remanding Defendant Davis to the custody of the U.S. Marshal, five of her six deputy clerks stated under oath that they would comply with the Court’s Order and issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples.
On September 8, 2015, Plaintiffs filed a Status Report at the Court’s behest. According to the Report, Plaintiffs have obtained marriage licenses from the Rowan County Clerk’s Office.1 The Court is therefore satisfied that the Rowan County Clerk’s Office is fulfilling its obligation to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples, consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Obergefell and this Court’s August 12, 2015 Order. For these reasons, the Court’s prior contempt sanction against Defendant Davis is hereby lifted.
................. As soon as Bunning ordered Davis into the custody of federal marshals, the optics were lost. Just as the gay-rights movement won the marriage fight with images of loving couples and happy, gay-parented children, so the religious-liberty movement is bolstered by images of middle-aged women jailed for defending their beliefs.
As if things in Kentucky weren’t already legally tangled, Bunning has now effectively granted a religious accommodation to Davis. Rowan County may just be the beginning. Davis, an elected official, can’t be fired. To remove her from office, the governor would have to call a special session of the state legislature, and hope that it would vote to impeach her. [ Fat chance in a state that voted 75% to ban SSM. ]
And a special session may be coming, but if so, it seems more likely to have a very different purpose. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, “57 of the state’s 120 elected county clerks have asked Governor Beshear to call a special session of the state legislature to address religious concerns related to same-sex marriage.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-triumph-of-kim-davis/404410/ |
