A county clerk in Kentucky who has invoked “God’s authority” and is defying the U.S. Supreme Court by refusing to license same-sex marriage has been summoned along with her entire staff to explain to a federal judge why she should not face stiff fines or jail time.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning moved swiftly Tuesday after a lesbian couple asked him to find Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in contempt. Davis told several couples and a crowd of supporters and protesters that her religious beliefs prevent her from sanctioning gay marriage, and then retreated again, closing her office door and blinds to the raucous scene outside.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene Monday night, leaving Davis no legal ground for her continued refusal Tuesday morning. Lawyers for the two gay couples who originally sued her asked the judge Tuesday to find her in contempt, but punish her with only financial penalties, not jail time.
“Since Defendant Davis continues to collect compensation from the Commonwealth for duties she fails to perform,” they asked Bunning to “impose financial penalties sufficiently serious and increasingly onerous” to compel her immediate compliance without delay.
Her ass needs to be in jail being fined daily until she is fired and replaced. Fine the damned county into bankruptcy until she is shitcanned. This is like a scene out of the recent HBO show Show Me a Hero.
I am so sick and tired of these backwards ass bigots masquerading as Jesus whisperers. God didn’t order you to do shit you inbred hick.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
She’s so devout she got straight-married four times.
schrodinger's cat
Is she a member of some fundamentalist cult? Why is she wearing full sleeves in the height of summer?
beltane
This woman is a bit of a blasphemer thinking that she is now acting under authority of God. When I look at her, all I see is a nasty wingnut lady, not the Divine Presence.
columbusqueen
@Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: Doesn’t that mean she should be stoned to death?
Cluttered Mind
@Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: I am a fan of Al Franken’s proposed “Three strikes and you’re out” rule for marriage (From his book “Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them”). Rush Limbaugh should not be permitted to marry again. Newt Gingrich, should he divorce Callista, should not be permitted to marry again. Kim Davis should not be permitted to marry again.
Punchy
Here’s a question — can she get donations to pay these fines? $1K a day aint nothing if she can raise Indiana Pizzeria type-money. Hell, she could last a year with that kind of scratch. Can the judge order her to pay it out of her salary, or can she just throw donated scratch at the judge for months on end?
I think we’d get more movement if he fines every one of her staff too. Peeps gunna break under that kind of financial pressure.
ET
They need to stop paying her if she isn’t doing her job.
Booger
I hate to be look-ist, but what’s with the hair and the jumper in Kentucky in August/September? Why do I assume she drives a ten-year old full-sized Dodge Passenger van?
bobbo
If her so-called religious so-called beliefs prevent her from doing her job, why doesn’t she just freaking quit?
beltane
@schrodinger’s cat: Rural white Christian women all dress like that. I could make a catty comment about how it spares the rest of us but I won’t go there.
Belafon
@Punchy: GoFundMe won’t allow a fundraiser for this if the judge fines her.
mai naem mobile
I don’t get this shit. Does she personally have to do the paperwork or is it her.underlings? I can’t believe she can’t have somebody else deal with the gheys. Nobody would have known which means she wants to be some kind of Christian martyr. Bet she’s got a gofundme account all ready to go and she’s probably been there long enough to get some kind of pension.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: I think she’s Apostolic of some sort. Depends on the sect, but some discourage women from cutting their hair and wearing jewelry and may or may not require floor length skirts but in any case require “modest” dress. Some are snake-handling kooks, others not so much. There are a lot of different sects.
Howard Beale IV
Latest word is that she and the entire staff (which includes one of her spawn) have to apppear Thursday in the Federal District Court to answer to the contempt charges. From what I understand, all that the Feds can do is fine and jail her on the contempt charge (I don’t know if there’s ceilings on the fines and jail time;) she can only be removed from her job by impeachment via the KY legislature.
JPL
If she can no longer uphold the laws of the United States of America, she needs to resign. Her faith obviously trumps her ability to do her job. I have a feeling that she is being used by right wing fundies.
Tommy
Amazing.
Months ago I walked out of a local bar. I’d had a few adult beverages but no issue walking 2.5 blocks home.
In that walk no sidewalks. No shoulder. The roads, if you call them that, are done each year with tar and gravel (unincorporated part of town). To walk off the road, as I did, I walked in the drainage ditches/front yards of people with a steep incline, you know drainage ditches.
Also no car traffic at 1:55 AM.
I had flip-flops on and tripped. Next thing I know I am getting a ticket for being drunk in public. I am like WTF dude!!!!!!!!!
Ended up paying $350 in fees/fines and 6 months of court supervision.
I tell that story, kind of ashamed of it, but because this lady is not in jail and not paying any fines and she can give a huge middle finger to the Federal government and the SCOTUS.
Oh ain’t America great …..
sparrow
The hypocrisy and ignorance is truly stunning. There is not much to say. It’s like trying to argue that water is wet with someone that won’t be convinced nohow anyways because jesus said so that’s why. It’s incoherent tribalism all the way down.
RSA
IANAL, but my understanding is that she holds an elected position, so she can’t be fired, and who knows how long an impeachment would take. Maybe a contempt of court finding?
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: Religious fundamentalists have a strange definition of modest. How is dressing differently from everyone around you, so that you stand out, modest?
Chris
Send in the 101st Airborne to escort the gay couples into her office and obtain their marriage certificates at gunpoint. Worked for Eisenhower.
Belafon
@bobbo: Because she’s on a crusade.
This weekend I saw a billboard that said “Marriage is 1Man + 1Woman. Please help. -God” Why does an omnipotent being need help?
scav
Based on recent traditions of hyper-patriot hoopla over individual Muslims’ actions, shouldn’t all Evangelicals now be treated as officially potentially treasonous to the Constitution and laws of the land? Activist Clerks! Unilaterally imposing Sharia Laws! Forming a Cell of Fellow Travelers in the Very Heart of government! Infiltrators! Moles! Deport them all! Where are the so-called moderate religious leaders denouncing them?
MattF
I do wonder about people who have a privileged communication channel with the Deity. Did S/He ever say “Go thou and take a civil service job”? I doubt it.
It’s like Russell’s famous Solipsist whose only question was why anyone disagreed with her belief that she was the only being in the universe. Belief is a puzzle, no matter what the philosophers say.
Eric U.
Looks like impeachment is really unlikely since the lege isn’t in session. The county really has no power over her. I’m assuming the contempt citation will come on Thursday. From what I’ve seen, her staff really can’t give out licenses, but it’s possible that isn’t true
My hethen interpretation of Leviticus 10.1 and 10.2 is that you shouldn’t make things like this up: “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the LORD by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded.
So fire blazed forth from the LORD’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD.”
beltane
@Belafon: Now I’m thinking of George Carlin. God is all-knowing and all-powerful but he needs your money.
Betty Cracker
@JPL:
The wingnut lawyers’ group that is representing her is definitely using her to gin up donations. The name escapes me at the moment, but from what I understand, they have a reputation for aggrandizing their organization at the expense of clients. Not that I feel sorry for that boneheaded woman. I hope the judge throws her and her minions in the clink.
Patricia Kayden
There has got to be someone who can terminate her, although I understand that she was elected to her post. Why doesn’t she quit and trust God to find her a new job where she can discriminate to her heart’s content?
singfoom
Good. Fine her into the ground. I like how she fundamentally misunderstands our system of government. You know, the secular Republic we have?
The one with the separation of church and state? The one that gives the STATE the power to issue marriage licenses? That have shit to do with the church?
They appealed all the way up to SCOTUS. It’s over, issue the licenses. Her tears of “persecution” about her faith are fucking delicious.
No, you moron, your precious sky daddy isn’t telling you you can’t issue licenses. Ain’t delusion grand?
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: At its core, it’s all about controlling women.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: At least you didn’t do like a buddy of mine. He walked out of the bar, stumbles up against a car, whips it out and starts peeing.
That was when the cop opened the car door and got out.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: I agree, 100%.
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: Or she is using the fundies. I assume when she loses her clerk position, she’ll shimmy on over to GOFUNDME to beg for a big payout like so many other bigots have successfully done.
Mike J
Contempt law says that the judge can order on or the other, but not both.
schrodinger's cat
@OzarkHillbilly: What happened to your drunk friend?
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: I almost wish I had done something like that, at least a better story :).
scav
Self-Aggrandizing isn’t technically one of the seven deadlies, although Pride (esp. Vainglory) seems to fit rather well.
delk
Her fourth husband is now saying that he is a strong believer in the second amendment and a redneck hillbilly and will protect his wife.
Uncle Cosmo
I posted this bit of offthecuff inspiration over at GOS re one possible source of support for the Kaintuck Fool Clerk. To save yinz the trouble of clicking over, hyar ’tis:
ETA: Changed spelling of “hundreds” to the variant prevalent in The Sticks for superior rhymitude.
BGinCHI
As George Carlin would ask, “What are you, fucking stupid?”
I hope when the inevitable Kickstarter (or whatever) campaign grifts this moran a couple dozen Gs the gubmint reaches out with its visible hand and takes that shit away.
Litlebritdifrnt
@schrodinger’s cat: To be fair most courthouses keep the a/c cranked down because the lawyers are required to wear suits in court and it gets really uncomfortable for them.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodinger’s cat: He spent the night in the clink.
john carter
Will she plead guilty Friday, apologize then retire? She should have a very nice pension and benefits package from the tax payers. Not to mention any possible alimony from some of the husbands.
Nice work, if you can get it.
Mark B.
@Mike J: Given the choice of jail or fine, it should probably be jail.
I wonder if there is a way for the court to order temporary staffing of the office with people that will do their jobs since the entire staff is incarcerated.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: It is a great story. That’s why I stole it from him.
Knight of Nothing
@Chris: Indeed. As my friend pointed out on social media, this is not an intractable problem. The solution is well-understood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_March_to_the_Sea
Tripod
@schrodinger’s cat:
Covering those tats.
delk
@Belafon: Those billboards are from the Iowa couple that had to close their wedding venue because they refused to allow same sex marriages.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/04/iowa-gay-marriage-1000-billboards-odgaard
catclub
I was hoping this post was a collection of backwards walking dog videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrs4I7zZ-rc
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
“Of course I’m driving, Officer. I’m in no condition to walk!”
Just Some Fuckhead
She’s only been a Christian for four years, which explains why she is acting like a four year old Christian.
Knight of Nothing
@Betty Cracker: I believe the organization to which you refer is called Liberty Counsel. Zombie Jerry Falwell shambles on…
Bex
@Betty Cracker: In my part of the world, Apostolic younger women’s wear is a floor-length jeans skirt, running shoes and a T-shirt of some kind, not always long-sleeved, especially in the summer. Most have long hair and top it with a small crochet headpiece. The older women wear long skirts, blouses with Peter Pan collars and let’s just say “sturdy” shoes, mostly black. Some of them wear slightly larger headpieces. No bright colors, although the running shoes seemed to be exempt from that rule when that’s all you could find.
WaterGirl
I was sure wrong. I was certain that god would have told her this morning that she should go back to work. This “nice” “christian” lady needs to be smacked down. Hope it happens on Thursday.
SiubhanDuinne
@Belafon:
Anyhow, isn’t football about to start? Seems to me God would have more important things on his mind, like deciding which teams are going to have winning seasons.
Gravenstone
You best hope God is willing to sign your paycheck, for the Commonwealth of Kentucky shall no longer do so. /fired
If only it were so …
WaterGirl
I’m hoping this backfires on them and the court makes some official pronouncement about how your religious liberty can’t tromp other people’s civil rights.
Ryan
Boy were I a judge, I would not feel compelled to limit myself to a fine. I would probably detail at length that the judicial branch is a check on the executive, the fine her for her salary and benefits for every day she didn’t do her job.
Elizabelle
From the Morehead, KY newspaper, with my annotation:
Per TPM, “Davis was elected last November as a Democrat, succeeding her mother in the office she had held for 37 years, according to the Morehead News. Her staff includes her son.”
Government been good to this girl’s family.
Mark B.
@SiubhanDuinne: He just tends to smite the quarterbacks of the opposing teams with knee injuries these days. Apparently, Kirk Cousins is the starting QB for the Redskins on opening day this year, so he probably doesn’t even have to do that this year to make them suck.
Arclite
I’m impressed that the people being discriminating against are not vengeful. They simply want to force compliance, so they request only fines, not jail time.
beltane
@Just Some Fuckhead: I hear she was much cooler back when she worked at the topless bar.
NonyNony
@Mark B.:
Nope – fine. A fine that starts at what her salary says she makes for a week and goes up incrementally each day she defies the court order. Make sure you include garnishing her wages so that she actually loses the money. If you can’t garnish wages (because of the county being controlled by her family), then make sure you hand collection duties over to the nastiest bill collectors the state has.
Putting her in jail makes her a martyr for the cause. Handing her a bill saying “you owe this much for contempt charges – and it’s double tomorrow if you don’t get in line” will help her decide if she really wants to be a financial martyr for the cause or not. It’s very easy for Christians to say they’re willing to go to jail for their beliefs, but few are willing to risk bankruptcy for their beliefs.
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne: LOL.
I might have made the mistake of saying I was drunk. He drives me the 1 block home and I go to get out of the car, sitting in the front seat with him not cuffed, and he says stop, I have to write you a ticket.
I am like for what?
Being drunk in public.
I then might have said with all due respect it is 2 AM and a Friday night if you hold that standard, a .08 as being publicly drunk, to everybody that was leaving a bar in this town you’d be writing tickets until next month.
He didn’t seem to get my point.
rikyrah
Greg SargentVerified account
@ThePlumLineGS
Scathing take on Scott Walker’s latest Obamacare gibberish from @charles_gaba: http://acasignups.net/15/09/01/scott-walker-poor-you-may-die-or-go-bankrupt-youll-always-have-george-michael …
rikyrah
start garnishing those wages, effective IMMEDIATELY.
Mark B.
@NonyNony: She’ll just get a GoFundMe for the fines and continue to flout the law.
Honestly, I don’t care if she’s made a martyr for her lawless supporters. Those people are lost anyway. They don’t believe in the rule of law, and going easy on this woman won’t win them over.
schrodinger's cat
@Litlebritdifrnt: Its not just the sleeves though, take a look at her overall appearance in the photo accompanying the NYT story.
Mike J
@Mark B.:
I hope she declares everything she collects to pay fines as taxable income.
trollhattan
@ET:
This. IIRC she’s pulling down $80+k and I have to believe that’s good bank in Kentucky. If she’s so “principled” she should refuse this demon money, as accepting it now means she is agreeing to do the devil’s work.
beltane
@schrodinger’s cat: If she were walking around in my neck of the woods like that, people would assume she was an ageing, decrepit hippie lady and quite possibly a lesbian.
scav
Behind here are all her enablers, including the other government officials apparently doing nothing to rein in use of political office as a backdrop and platform in her flamboyant Whee-Lookat-MEEEEEE-the-Glamourous-REEEE-ligious-Martyr! Reality Show.
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: a central teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself
I suppose it would be too much to ask her to show her work? Or, as Wikipedia says, citation needed.
trollhattan
@columbusqueen:
Yes, if she weighs the same as a duck. I need to go find a Very Large duck (yes, I said “duck” damnit).
Bobby Thomson
@Howard Beale IV: summary contempt power allows up to six months without a jury trial. Longer sentences require a jury trial or waiver.
MomSense
What is it with these fundamentalists? Jesus had nothing to say about homosexuality. And the fundamentalist Christians aren’t exactly following Leviticus to the letter. Plenty of fundamentalist Christians eat ham for Easter and that is also an abomination. What the hell is it? Is it as simple as they find the idea of gay sex icky? I honestly do not understand why homosexuality is such a problem for them. People wanting to commit to each other through all the ups and downs of life seems like a good idea to me.
Mark B.
@Mike J: Well, apparently GoFundMe is no longer accepting those kind of fundraising schemes, after the fiasco from the bakery which refused to serve gay customers. This lady will have to find another funding mechanism.
g
along with her entire staff
How big a staff does she have? Do any of her staff feel differently than she does, and if so, don’t they have a right to exercise their belief? I’d sure as hell be pissed if I suffered a financial consequence from something my boss decided I should/should not do.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Hmm, so she shares something in common with Paul Ryan.
Redshift
@mai naem mobile: It’s pretty clear she considers it her “religious liberty” right not only to avoid being personally involved in issuing icky ghey marriage licenses, but to actively prevent anyone else under her authority from doing so. Just like the wingnuts who tried to argue that filing a form stating they wouldn’t cover birth control violated their religious liberty because it would enable people to get birth control outside their control and without their resources, so therefore it “involved” then in the process. That’s also why she doesn’t just quit.
It’s all about controlling other people, not their own “freedom.” It has a long history in North America – when the Pilgrims came here for “religious freedom” (as I learned in school), the “freedom” they were lacking was the freedom to live where the only religious beliefs allowed were their own.
Tommy
@Gin & Tonic: Even if she could show “her work” and provided a thousand citations from the Bible (she can’t BTW) how does that trump the law of the nation she lives in, she is a citizen of, works for, and the SCOTUS has clearly ruled on?
Mark B.
@g: I think the staff believes they are required to act as they are ordered by the clerk. I believe that the judge will instruct them about what their duties really are at the hearing on Thursday.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Yup.
She don’t got his washboard abs, though.
Mike J
@trollhattan:
Be fair. Ryan actually once had a summer job driving the Oscar Meyer Weiniemobile. It’s untrue to say he never had a private sector job, even if that’s the only one.
burnspbesq
She can be removed from office upon conviction for the Class A misdemeanor version of official misconduct. A complaint has been filed, but the Rowan County DA’s office was forced to refer it to the state AG because of conflict of interest concerns. It’s likelly that the state AG, who is a Democrat running for statewide office (Governor?) against a Teahadist Republican, will punt the case to some other county DA. I would be surprised if anything happens in the next 12-18 months.
Roger Moore
@Belafon:
Why does he use a billboard instead of writing in fire in the sky? An obvious miracle would do a much better job of getting people’s attention than something anyone with a few hundred bucks could do.
brent
@Tommy: Fun fact: In Nevada, where I live, public drunkeness is actually constitutionally protected. That is, according to the Nevada constitution, no entity – counties, municipalities – can make a law against public intoxication. Of course, you can be arrested for crimes related to public drunkeness – disturbing the peace and so forth – but being drunk, in and of itself, cannot be considered a crime.
Aleta
And yet
(The quote is from July, after their first attempt.)
LWA
@Belafon:
She needs a GoFundieMe page.
schrodinger's cat
Doesn’t the Bible allow polygamy? So where do fundies get this one man and one woman BS? Isn’t that a more modern view of marriage?
LWA
@Roger Moore: The last time the Deity wrote in the sky, it was “Surrender Dorothy”.
Didn’t turn out well.
Mezz
Where on earth is the Governor in this?? Why isn’t there anybody in this state that is putting enormous public pressure on her? Sweet Ceiling Cat what is going on there??? Call an emergency session of the Legislature or issue some kind of executive order (I’m assuming there’s some hierarchy) – for Fk’s sake look at the shenanigans that have gone on in Texas, in terms of governors having sneaky executive influence/power.
Tommy
@brent: LOL. Not in Illinois. I get if I fell asleep on a park bench. Couldn’t find my wallet or ID. Pissed on a cop car.
But I was “drunk walking.” The same standards my state owns up to driving they put on me walking home on a rural road, side street, you name it.
WTF!
Mezz
@Roger Moore: For some reason this made me think of Constantine in Rome getting ready for Maxentius.
Excellent point!
Roger Moore
@Arclite:
I assume this is a matter of principle for them. If it were just a matter of wanting to get married, they could resolve the difficulty by hopping across the county line, where a different clerk would undoubtedly be willing to do the job. This is about forcing her to stop discriminating in the name of Jesus, no more, no less.
scav
@Aleta: Well, one side actually seems to be good neighbors, and it’s not the one shouting loudest from the rooftops about their above the law personal purity and superior moralosity. Go Figure.
As for the slight soupçon of preaching, we don’t have to do lockstep. And certainly wanting the law to be upheld seems entirely fair and not an unreasonable “personal attack”.
Bobby Thomson
@NonyNony: bankrupting her makes her a martyr, too. Jailing her gets her out of the office so that she can be replaced.
Elizabelle
Rand Paul had anything to say about this?
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
Don’t ask Obama. He has no ducks left to give.
scav
@Tommy: I think in Iowa you can be arrested for even pretending to be drunk, such are the oddities of the general drunk and disorderly / public intoxication gray-zone.
Scott S.
@g:
How big a staff does she have? Do any of her staff feel differently than she does, and if so, don’t they have a right to exercise their belief? I’d sure as hell be pissed if I suffered a financial consequence from something my boss decided I should/should not do.
I wonder if the strategy for calling the entire staff in is so they can put her in jail, then turn to the next staff member in line and say, “Will you do your civic duty and issue the licenses?” If they say no, they go in the clink, too. And on down the line ’til they find someone who’s either not a wingnut or not willing to go to jail for their boss’s hatemongering.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
By most accounts, Davis’s family has been ruling the roost in that county for a couple of generations, so it’s pretty funny to watch her temper tantrums as she slowly realizes that, yes, the law actually DOES apply to her, too.
The downside is that now a Republican will have an edge to win the next election since Davis is a (nominal) Democrat. Sigh.
Mike J
If you are unwilling to impose the death penalty, you will be excluded from the jury in cases in which it might be applied. Why can’t we exclude this woman from a job that she can’t/won’t do?
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
If they know their Bible, they’ll cite Acts 15, which says that Gentile converts to Christianity didn’t need to follow all of the rules laid down in Leviticus. They needed only to avoid eating food sacrificed to idols, blood, and meat from strangled animals and to avoid sexual immorality. So that says that ham is fine but not Teh Ghey.
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
And he’s been selling the same line of bologna ever since.
boatboy_srq
@schrodinger’s cat: The body, being riddled with sin, must be concealed. Notice that only women’s bodies are affected. Same reasoning behind hijab/burka/whatever. Basically following the assumption that men can’t control themselves so women have to be covered up. The converse is slut-shaming for skimpy tops, short skirts etc, and “she asked for it” rape apologies. I’m still amazed sometimes that “men are pigs” is the fundamental excuse for denying women fairly basic freedoms.
@Roger Moore: “What does God need with a starship?”
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Roger Moore:
Of course, as Fred Clark has carefully laid out several times, Peter has that vision when a specific PERSON knocks at his door, and Peter realizes that his vision of food means that there are no longer any “non-kosher” people, either.
Yet another why Biblical literalism is the fallback position for morons — even though Peter specifically SAYS that it’s about the person, not about food, idiots insist it’s only about the food.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Smart. Put her in jail and she’s a sobbing martyr to the cause. Bankrupt her ass and nobody will give a shit.
Mike J
@Roger Moore: Acts 10, actually. And later in that chapter, Peter explicitly states God wasn’t talking about shrimp, he was talking about people:
“You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”
C.V. Danes
If she believes in God, then she believes that God writes the rules and that we all live by those rules as creatures in God’s universe. God’s rules trump man’s rules.
That being said, this is between her and her god. If she’s really that set against it, then there’s the door.
boatboy_srq
@Tripod: Heh. Best Facebook item seen in the last few days: guy with ink, and caption “Has tattoo of Leviticus 18:22, which forbids gay sex; doesn’t realize that Leviticus 19:28 forbids tattoos”…
Hungry Joe
I assume that in Rowan County, KY, a firefighter could refuse — for religious reasons — to help put out a fire in a house with the street number 666.
lgerard
@Mark B.:
I believe the law in Kentucky authorizes the County Court to issues licenses if the County Clerk is incapacitated. I know the gentlemen appealed to the Clerk of the County Court for a license and she was quite upset that she was unable to help them at this time.
I think the fact that the judge has summoned everyone in the office to a show cause hearing indicates he is going to put it simply…….obey the law or be in contempt and report to jail. Fines are useless, as it just kicks the can down the road.
Believe it or not, there is a much simpler solution to all this. I think that her objection is that her name is on the licenses, and that might make Jesus mad at her. For some bizarre reason Kentucky licenses, even drivers licenses are issued in the name of County Clerks with their signature on them. If you google images of drivers licenses you can see this. I know of no other state that does this, and if the law were changed so that all licenses were issued by the Commonwealth of Kentucky it would make her objections moot.
boatboy_srq
@C.V. Danes: Methinks her problem is that she believes The People elected her to do God’s Work, when it’s far more likely that He appointed her to do The People’s work (something rather different).
Paul in KY
@Patricia Kayden: $80,000 smackos. Can buy a lot of jumpers with that dough.
Cacti
@C.V. Danes:
And she’s free to believe that with all of her heart.
However, the U.S. Constitution recognizes no higher final authority than “We the people”, and the 14th Amendment holds that no U.S. state can deny any citizen equal protection of the laws in their jurisdiction.
Officers of the state do not get to exercise a religious veto over the constitutional requirements of their office. If one’s religious beliefs prevent the faithful performance of the duties of a public office, resignation is the appropriate recourse. Ms. Davis OTOH believes she is a law unto herself, because Jesus. Unacceptable.
boatboy_srq
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Added plus: any proof of her being among The Elect (i.e. her wealth) is stripped from her, making her wrong, poorer and less Prosperity-Gospel-Blessed all at once.
Paul in KY
@Tommy: it was a good point, I thought.
boatboy_srq
@Mike J:
I am so stealing that.
schrodinger's cat
@boatboy_srq: Orthodox Hindus used to shave a widow’s head so that she would be unattractive to other men. She had to wear widow’s weeds till the day she died. Fortunately that practice is no longer prevalent.
Paul in KY
@Redshift: They were persecuted by Church of England. Which, at that time, was the only authorized religion for citizens. I guess you could also be Catholic, but you were discriminated against (officially) for being Catholic.
Paul in KY
@Mezz: I would unfortunately assume that there would be a lot of grandstanding from Republican (and a few Democrats) legislators who think they can make some political hay out of this.
Paul in KY
@Scott S.: She previously testified that one of the under-clerks would issue the licenses. I assume that person is now on her shit list.
Paul in KY
@lgerard: Fuck her fucked up ‘objections’. She’s not sanctifying marriages when her name appears on the form. She’s only saying that they can legally marry, under the laws of the USA.
That they are not 10 years old, or already married, or one of the individuals is a dog. Stuff like that.
pseudonymous in nc
@Elizabelle:
The fact that the deputy clerk was also a Davis was noted a week or so ago. Another one of those weird elected-but-hereditary positions that America seems to have in spite of not having a formal aristocracy.
boatboy_srq
@Redshift: People forget that the Pilgrims were Separatists, an extremist sect of Puritanism, who’d worn out there welcome in England and the Netherlands and amongst the Anglicans, the Puritans and the Presbyterians, and went to the New World because the Old World wouldn’t have them.
beltane
OT but good news. Sens. Casey and Coons are supporting the Iran deal. We are one Senator away from avoiding a veto.
Citizen Alan
@Betty Cracker:
This is also why I reject the idea that women will overwhelmingly support Hillary to the same degree that blacks support Obama. That theory ignores the fact that there are tons of women who have found ways to accrue power and status by working within the Patriarchy, as well as women so full of self-loathing that they think patriarchal views are objectively right.
beltane
@Citizen Alan: There are even more women who are fiercely devoted to their tribe above all else. Gender is not a tribe, and most women feel no particular allegiance to females belonging to the Other.
schrodinger's cat
@Citizen Alan: I don’t think Hillary will get 90% of the women’s vote but she certainly will get at least as much as other Dem nominees have, perhaps more. How much more, remains to be seen.
Citizen Alan
@trollhattan:
I’d wager a fair amount that she doesn’t tithe anything close to 10% of $80 grand, either.
Bobby Thomson
@boatboy_srq: I have an ancestor who traveled on the Mayflower but was not one of the Pilgrims. He wound up being hanged after shooting another colonist in an argument (the first English execution in North America). I’ve often thought he’d be a good subject for a novel.
Anyway, yeah, the Pilgrims got kicked out of two countries for being assholes.
Bobby Thomson
@beltane: that is good news. At least one of those is a flip.
Jean King
Welp, she’s twice divorced herself, and in her church that’s a big ol’ sin. This business isn’t about her religious beliefs–I doubt she really has any. It’s all about attention. Crowds of people are taking pictures of her and following her around and hanging on her every word. Everybody recognizes her now. That’s her motivator. She’s just another attention whore.
Cacti
@Citizen Alan:
I agree that Hillary won’t be getting 90%+ of the women’s vote, should she win the Dem nomination.
But I do think she is likely to draw women to the polls who would be otherwise disinclined to vote, based on the possibility of voting for the first woman POTUS.
The GOP has been winning a small majority of the white women’s vote for a while now. So I’m curious to see if HRC could move the needle on that at all.
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
Acts 15 is actually a good cite for repeal of food restrictions. They were asking about circumcision, but the response was to say that it was unreasonable to hold gentiles to a standard the Jews had never been able to meet. The conclusion was that they were only required to hold to a handful of specific rules of Moses, and the rest of the stuff could slide. It’s very hard to argue that it’s being misinterpreted as being about food, since it mentions a specific, and short, list of food rules that still need to be followed.
schrodinger's cat
@Bobby Thomson: A comment I read on BBC about the Pilgrims,
qwerty42
I dunno. She is probably a decent enough person who is having a crazy social conservatives telling her she has to do this, only she can save the nation, the persecution has started … and so on. She is foolish and maybe a bit vain, but the hysteria that would seem to be around her is not normal in any way.
Cacti
@qwerty42:
People demanding their full rights as citizens = hysteria?
trollhattan
@Cacti:
We forget at our considerable peril that Republicans can only stay in power by continuing to convince people to vote against their own self-interests, and women factor heavily in the calculus. They’re genuinely offended that Latinos and “the blahs” don’t simply follow suit.
Presuming Hillary wins the nom, I’m expecting them to unleash a crapton of mean girl politics. “Mrrrow.”
satby
@Tommy: Drunk walkers walk into traffic, getting hurt or killed, traumatizing the drivers of the cars they stumble in front of, and costing their counties public funds to be spent on the fire, ambulance, and or police response to an accident. And they often are belligerent while rescue workers try to help them, because they are drunk. When I was an EMT working in a hospital trauma center we had injured drunk walkers every week. Those were the survivors.
Count yourself lucky a ticket was all you got.
Matt McIrvin
@Citizen Alan: That will never happen simply because black Americans already overwhelmingly support Democrats, regardless of the identity of the candidate, to a degree that women do not.
dlw32
My favorite part is where she appeals to the SCOTUS for injunction against the decision that came from the SCOTUS… I guess under the “you were just kidding, right?” defense…
SWMBO
I wonder if the judge is having the whole office in so that they can declare, on the record, if they will uphold the law and issue licenses? And if they don’t, can the judge block them from running for this office if she is removed? (Like her spawn running to replace her since she replaced her mother?) I’m wondering if the judge may be playing chess with checkers for brains. Also, can her lawyers be fined/jailed for advising her to break the law after the Supremes tell her to do it?
qwerty42
@Cacti: People demanding their full rights as citizens = hysteria?
Of course not. But if she has fallen into the hysteria that is around this, she has come to think she is … I dunno, “saving the Republic”? … yeah, crazy and she should resign her office if she cannot fulfill the duties, but I’m not thinking she can retire to live on her capital gains from shrewd investments her grandfather made, so her pension is probably a big deal. And she no doubt is being told she has to stand for her Lord and Savior by people with no iron in the fire and many of whom are simply cynically exploiting her case and who will move on to the next (maybe Mt Denali?) case after this show is over (I mean, the Supreme Court? Really? No county clerk is just going to appeal to the Supreme Court on this case. I don’t like the bureaucratic cruelty she is inflicting on others, so I’m with them, but the whole case reeks of the paranoia and arrogance seen in among some of the self-styled “religious” nutjobs). They will move on and she will probably never realize how they used her.
SWMBO
@qwerty42: They will move on and she will probably never realize how they used her.
She will when she finds out that SHE’s the one the court fines/jails.
Calouste
@Roger Moore: Avoid eating blood? So everyone who’s ever eaten a rare steak is going to hell?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Roger Moore: Chicken’s probably out then, since the old farm wives’ way to butcher is a quick neck snap.
tybee
@OzarkHillbilly:
pretty much the same thing happened to me except i didn’t actually wizz on the car.
i was GONNA but when i, ah, whipped it out the cop jumped out and arrested me.
thankfully, the case was dismissed for lack of evidence.
C.S.
@Tommy:
Billy Dalton staggered on the sidewalk
Someone said he stumbled and he fell
Six squad cars came screaming to the rescue
Hauled ol’ Billy Dalton off to jail
Because the law is for protection of the people . . .
PaulW
As I’ve been saying on Twitter about her, Ms. Davis, you want to serve God’s Authority, go work as a pastor or in a church. As an elected official, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE OF YOUR COUNTY AND STATE WHICH ARE YOU REFUSING NOW TO DO.
/headdesk
shortstop
As several have pointed out, GoFundMe won’t allow accounts for this sort of thing any more. But Samaritans’ Purse, a Graham family production, will — I think the Kleins, those gay-hating Oregon bakers, cleared something like $300K using SP.
I get that throwing Davis in jail makes a martyr of her, but stiff cash fines may not be much of a deterrent with all this vicious Christian crowdfunding going on. Can’t wait to see what Bunning does on Thursday, because he will hold her and any deputy clerks who continue to follow her lead in contempt. (Who will be the first Bork? I kid!)
My prediction: after Thursday, Davis will change her tune on whether allowing some deputy clerks to issue licenses to all — she’s been forbidding that so far, which is why they’re being hauled into district court with her — is “saying [she] approve[s]” of it. Suddenly Jesus will become a lot more “understanding.”
C.V. Danes
@Cacti: Agreed.
PurpleGirl
What I find interesting is her statement that she was fulfilling her late MIL’s wish that she go to church. Does that mean that before the MIL died, she didn’t go to church, she didn’t dress in a modest way, etc. So are these long-standing ‘sincere’ beliefs or beliefs she’s only recently picked up?
J R in WV
If I lived in Kentucky I would be embarrassed about this behavior.
I like Kentucky, parts of it, to visit. There is beautiful countryside, interesting geology, fossils and minerals to collect (one of my many hobbies, why I have spent as much time in KY as I have) helpful people mostly.
There are less good things about KY, I won’t try for a list. There are obnoxious people everywhere… for example.
But this lady ( using the term loosely!) is just doing a wrong to the people who elected her to do a job for them. If she wasn’t willing to do the duties of the job, whatever comes up, she shouldn’t have run for the office. It has been obvious that this situation was coming for many months now.
And John, you said it well, your rant about her holier than thou attitude was perfect, and allows me to not go on any more about it. Thank you for your help describing this person and her attitudes.
tamiasmin
@schrodinger’s cat:
The Equation of Marriage: M = m men + w women (M ≥ 2; m, w ≥ 0)
Ruckus
@Tommy:
The law is probably written about walking drunk because if you are you could just walk out in the road and get run over or cause the person to crash trying to avoid you. Seems to me that a breathalyzer test would/should be necessary to say you were drunk, not just a cops opinion. From your story it sounds like he didn’t do a field sobriety test either.
Ruckus
@schrodinger’s cat:
You may have read it here, as I’ve said it before, I’ve never seen it on BBC and I’ve been saying that for decades.
Moe
@schrodinger’s cat: Fundamentalist for sure – with that long Christian hair and fashions right out of the Duggar closet.
Gex
@Arclite: it’s not about not being vengeful. It’s about denying them the ability to point to a martyr who was jailed over this issue.
Thoughtful Today
Skimmed the thread, not sure anyone else posted this:
I’m not a fan of USNews but it’s the first I’ve seen report this:
“Kentucky Clerk Fighting Gay Marriage Has Wed Four Times.”
Hilarious, if you ignore the malevolent hypocrisy.
Right-wingers never seem to hold themselves to the standards they expect of others.
Randommentality
If possible they should levy the fine against the office / State. After all, it is the office that is in contempt. Further, I bet if the State has to pay a couple of hundred thousand dollars every day licence don’t issue, the whole impeachment thing will suddenly become possible. No martyrs to the cause, and a fast solution. Again, though, I don’t know if they can do that procedurally, as the case stands.
Paul in KY
@Just Some Fuckhead: Great observation JSF!
Lurking Canadian
I’m kind of okay with the idea of massive fines getting paid through donations to GoFundme.
Can’t raise taxes…
Paul in KY
@satby: Good point.
Paul in KY
@shortstop: I think it’s gonna take more than just the Thursday meeting with Judge Bunning. There will be a period of fines and/or jail.
Paul in KY
@PurpleGirl: 4 whole years.
Paul in KY
@Randommentality: They better fine her personally. My state tax dollars should not go for fines, due to this bozo.
Randommentality
@Paul in KY: That’s exactly what I’m talking about – the political pressure on the State would suddenly become such that the Governor can no longer disingenuously claim that it would be fiscally inappropriate to call a special convention of the legislature to impeach her and the rest of these clowns so there’s really nothing anyone can do. Currently, the entire administration and legislature is able to shrug their collective shoulders and act like it is one big invisible Somebody Else’s Problem, while privately giggling at the situation and possibly even egging her on. I think that might change if it suddenly costs their constituents and their budgets dearly.