The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against the Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, and the clerk will face her moment of truth.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis will have to choose whether to issue marriage licenses, defying her Christian conviction, or continue to refuse them, defying a federal judge who could pummel her with fines or order that she be hauled off to jail.
“She’s going to have to think and pray about her decision overnight. She certainly understands the consequences either way,” Mat Staver, founder of the right-wing law firm representing Davis, said on Monday, hours before a court-ordered delay in the case expired. “She’ll report to work tomorrow, and face whatever she has to face.”
A line of couples, turned away by her office again and again in the two months since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the nation, plan to meet her at the courthouse door.
Related: Kentucky County Wants To Fire Kim Davis, Clerk Who Won’t Issue Marriage Licenses To Same-Sex Couples
Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after the landmark decision. Two same couples and two opposite sex couples sued her, arguing that she must fulfill her duties as an elected official despite her personal religious faith. A federal judge ordered her to issue the licenses, and an appeals court upheld that decision. Her lawyers with the Liberty Counsel filed a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking that they grant her “asylum for her conscience.”
Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th district, referred Davis’ request to the full court, which denied the stay without comment. Kagan joined the majority in June when the court legalized gay marriage across the nation.
Meanwhile, a couple that had been turned away went to Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins to ask that she be charged with official misconduct, a misdemeanor defined by state law as a public official who “refrains from performing a duty imposed upon him by law or clearly inherent in the nature of his office.” The crime is punishable by up to a year in jail.
Watkins cited a conflict of interest and forwarded the complaint to Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, whose office will decide whether to appoint a special prosecutor, generally a county attorney from a surrounding jurisdiction, who would decide whether to file charges.
As the clock wound down for Davis on Monday, the tension intensified between dueling groups of protesters outside her office window on the courthouse lawn.
Hexie Mefford has stood on the lawn waving a flag nearly every day for more than two months. The flag is fashioned after Old Glory, but with a rainbow instead of the red and white bars.
Mike Reynolds, a Christian protesting in Davis’ defense, shouted at her that he found the flag offensive: He is an Army veteran, he complained, and they had desecrated the American flag. The two groups roared at each other. The Christians called on the activists to repent; the activists countered that their God loves all.
It was a marked difference from the cordial protests that unfolded there every day since Davis declared she would issue no licenses.
Rachelle Bombe has sat there every day, wearing rainbow colors and carrying signs that demand marriage equality. One particularly hot day, Davis, the woman she was there to protest against, worried Bombe would get overheated and offered her a cold drink. In turn, Bombe said she’s checked in on Davis, whose lawyer says she’s received death threats and hate mail, to make sure she’s holding up despite the difficult circumstances.
“She’s a very nice lady, I like her a lot,” Bombe said of Davis. “We’re on the opposite sides of this, but it’s not personal.”
On Monday, the Christians stood on the grass and sang “I am a Child of God.”
The marriage equality activists chimed in after each refrain: “So are we.”
By CLARE GALOFARO /Associated Press
© 2015, Associated Press, All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
1EqualityUSA
Pick and choose which Bible verses apply to you and which ones apply to your brothers and sisters.
Captain Obvious
This dumb trick will “pray” and decide to keep her cushy paycheck while eating crow. Suck it up, cow. You’re getting paid way too much to “think” over something that doesn’t concern you. I’m sure there’s a long line of people waiting in the wings to take her easy “job” with no complaints.
Bobby French
Damian Healy
I. Can’t. Wait. For. Tomorrow.
I’ve got no idea what she’s going to do.
1) Issue the licenses. 15/1
2) Resign. 4/1
3) Continue not issuing licenses. 7/1
4) Duvet day. 18/1
Place your bets!
Jesse Erickson
Raise your hand if you saw this coming
GG
I’m so glad Kagan referred to the entire court.
Michael Carley
Do your job or leave – simple as that love… Your values are your own – keep them that way.
1EqualityUSA
A new cook book in the works? “Cooking with Crow.”
Dakotahgeo
@1EqualityUSA: THANK YOU!!! (With a bit of ‘sauce’ on the side, eh?).
Nathaniel McManus
Civil war begins…lol
Dakotahgeo
@1EqualityUSA: THANK YOU!!! (With a bit of ‘sauce’ on the side, eh?).
Keven Ouellette
can her ass throw her in jail n be done with it
1EqualityUSA
Thickened with bigotry, flavored with hate.
Alan Landrum
McShane
@Damian Healy:
She’ll resign. I’m all in.
Glücklich
Good for Racehlle Bombe.
jwtraveler
Religious fundamentalists are all terrorists. Some use bombs and guns, other use lies, lawyers and the political system. But the goal is always the same: the imposition of their belief system on the world and the denial of everyone else’s rights to achieve supremacy.
Robert Dumdie
Contact her union rep.
Realitycheck
Twinkle Twinkle little star, I hope the day they put the bitch in jail is not too far!!!
Realitycheck
@jwtraveler: True !!!
Kevin Cockeye O'Cochlain
They should have the U.S. Marshals at her office at 8am and if she won’t issue licenses they should cuff her, do the perp walk, take her before the judge so he can find her in contempt of court and tell her to enjoy her 90 days in jail.
Joshua Zamora
Sad thing is if she’s jailed she will continue to hold her office as County Clerk still collecting her salary of $85,000.
Jenny Griffin Sunshine Moore
Alford S. Sean
Great News:
Government Employees Have No â??Religious Freedomâ?? Right To Refuse Service To Same-Sex Couples, Says Americans United
Jul 8, 2015 â?? Clerks Must Issue Marriage Licenses To All Qualified Couples, Church-State Watchdog Says
Government employees who oppose marriage equality because of their religious beliefs are not entitled to refuse service to same-sex couples, Americans United for Separation of Church and State has informed officials in all 50 states today.
In a letter released today, which will be sent to all state attorneys general as well as county clerks in Texas and South Dakota, Americans United explains that with marriage equality now the law of the land, government employees do not have the right to opt out of serving gay couples, because doing so would harm those couples and violate their constitutional rights.
â??As Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the U.S. Supreme Courtâ??s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, there is dignity in marriage for all couples,â? said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. â??But government officials who refuse to serve same-sex couples are taking away that dignity.â?
The letter was prompted by a recent memo from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and a statement by South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, who suggested that government employees may be allowed a religious exemption from serving same-sex couples.
In its memo, Americans United says the Constitution makes no such allowance.
â??As with an interracial couple, imposing such burdens on a same-sex couple would burden, demean, and stigmatize the couple in a manner that violates the Constitution and other laws. Thus, allowing accommodations in these circumstances would subject government entities and officials to legal liability,â? asserts the AU document.
Said Americans United Senior Litigation Counsel Gregory M. Lipper: â??The Supreme Court meant what it said. Any same-sex couple denied service by a government official should contact Americans Unitedâ??s legal department. We stand ready to represent same-sex couples whose rights are violated on account of religion.â?
This action is part of Americans Unitedâ??s new project, Protect Thy Neighbor, which seeks to stop religious-based discrimination against LGBT persons and others.
The letter was written by Lipper with assistance from AU Associate Legal Director Alex J. Luchenitser, and Madison Fellows Zachary A. Dietert and Natacha Y. Lam. (Lam is admitted in New York only, and is supervised by Lipper.)
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
https://au.org/media/press-releases/government-employees-have-no-religious-freedom-right-to-refuse-service-to-same
Alford S. Sean
Isn’t it amazing that Big Kim Davis can get married four times, via her chosen man-made religious cult! She disgusts me on every level. Long grey hair, no makeup, & in a plus sized skirt tells me her chosen cult….yup snakes and chickens. Holiness??? NOT-
Bret Jacobs
Hag
Robert Casey
Bill Mountrey
Pretend christian hypocrite picks and chooses which things she’ll follow. Her biggest lie: “Till Death Us Do Part” which she said to her first 3 husbands….
Alex Rothwell
What was she expecting really – she should move forward .
Chris Parkerson
Desert Boy
Oops. So this fat, ugly heffa got her ass handed to her by the High Court. Life is good.
Elbert de la Cruz
Wooohoooo!!! Ugly fat whore!!!!
Rick Holtz
Elected or not, she IS a civil servant whose overpaid salary is funded by American taxpayers. Her dubious
“Christian beliefs” are irrelevant. She either performs her job as mandated by the Federal Government-or she resigns. Throw her fat, hypocritical, bigoted ass in jail and strip her of ALL benefits. She doesn’t deserve the job.
Sean Martin
Thank you!!!
Bill Cheek
Jack Conklin
KIM DAVIS = ISSUE GAY MARRIAGE certificates or RESIGN… GAY MARRIAGE IS THE LAW OF THE LAND. If you can’t follow the law, you need to RESIGN….
Ra Hill
Alex Banx
her face makes me nasceous. I really wish people would stop giving her attention. FB won’t even let me hide these posts. 🙁
Joe Petrucci
Her next position will be as the republican vice presidential nominee…
Stu Hipwell
Bye Felicia!
Realitycheck
@Joshua Zamora: Actually that depends on the charges of misconduct, if she is found guilty she has to give up her job and the pay for the days she did not work.
The attorney general of Kentucky is looking in to that right now, and If Kim Davis is arrested for contempt of court, charges of misconduct will have to be filed for sure.
Either Davis issues licenses today or she is going to jail and she will be removed from her job for misconduct.
Arthur McKinney
Haha hateful bitch it’s time to resign and then fade into obscurity, relegated to the darker pages of history forever.
Billy Budd
She deserves punishment. No mercy, please.
Tim Bernth
Now do your job or get out lady…
Victor Incerti
Hallelujah!
Joe Battaglia
Finally if u see anymore posts about this bitch they had better be that she’s going to jail or had been removed from office
Craig Bankert
I hope this B sucks it so hard she chokes.
Luis Collazo
Supreme court never took the case so how could they rule against her misleading headline!
Luis Collazo
She’s a fucking hypocrite! And she ugly too!
Giancarlo85
The Supreme Court has made it very clear. She either needs to follow the law, resign or face contempt. She cannot delay even one more day. Every federal court all the way up to the Supreme Court rejected her argument.
Augeste Alexander Duyos
Pull the plug!!
Jane Freeman
She should be sacked. Isn’t that gross misconduct? Lets see how unemployment suits her.
Realitycheck
Ladies and gentlemen The Rowan county Clerk office i snow open for business………….
Kim Davis, please we can’t wait for your next move, LOL
Luis H. Lopez
Remove her it’s disgusting these Christian fascist hold office!
James Sigmon
Your job is that tou work for the public if you dont want your job many are standing in line to tak it I suggest you quit
Brian
Reportedly she has refused to issue marriage licenses this Tuesday morning. If she can’t do her job, she should resign. If she refuses to resign, she should be removed.
Blake Baines
Realitycheck
LoL she is now claiming God’s authority, she might be mentally diseased but at this point she is on the same level as ISIS
On Tuesday morning, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’ office denied the licences to at least two couples. At first, Davis remained in her office with the door closed and blinds drawn. But she emerged a few minutes later, telling the couples and the activists gathered there that her office is continuing to deny the licences “under God’s authority.”
1EqualityUSA
If I had a pet snake, I’d name her Kim Davis. This low-life is a bigot. Biblical rules do not apply to her, just us. These men who have tried three times to get their marriage license, should sue her personally, for pain and suffering. To take a very special day and turn it into a public display of wills is disgusting. No wonder she’s been married 4 different times, Biblically felonious hypocrite.
Realitycheck
This morning refusal on video, I do feel terrible for these 2 guys that have to put
up with this living horror of a woman.
Now lets see if the judge will show some strength, or if this circus show will drag on few more weeks, until the judge grow some balls.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kentucky-clerk-kim-davis-refuses-same-sex-marriage-gods-authority/
Christian Holmboe Dahl
Hi, im sorry to disturb, but in Denmark, there is a petition made by amnesty to stop discrimination of transgender people in the health system, please sign up if it’s possible:
https://amnesty.dk/reag%C3%A9r/skriv-under-stop-diskriminationen-af-transkoennede
Eric Crawford
Rowan County Clerk
Kim Davis
[email protected]
600 West Main Street Room 102
Morehead, KY 40351
Phone â?? (606) 784-5212
Fax â?? (606) 784-2923
Hours:
8:00 â?? 4:00 Monday â?? Thursday
8:00 â?? 6:00 Friday
9:00 â?? 12:00 Last Saturday of the Month
SteveDenver
Cue: Crowd-Funding campaign so sympathetic Bible Bigots can send in their support.
sarlon
For someone who states that it goes against her religious beliefs she sure is a hypocrite.
Its public record shes been divorced 3 times, married 4 times, has had a child fathered by a man she wasn’t married to after being divorced, while having an affair with another man.
God must be SOOOOO proud of this upright religious woman.
1EqualityUSA
(This has been said before. Forgive me, Queertiers, these words are relevant to Kim Davis as well.)
These Religious zealots are imposing their beliefs on other Americans. That is too great a burden for a secular society. Christians are free to carry on, rendering unto Caesar, should they want to take part in capitalism. There is no room for a mindset that rationalizes taking away inalienable rights from the unpopular Americans. This country’s citizens cannot tolerate those who wish to oppress other Americans, no matter the motivation.
Do you not see the danger in tearing the wall of separation down between religion and politics? You believe we are a “Christian Nation,” but were this to change a hundred years from now, you may find your views challenged and your beliefs imposed upon. If you truly believe that your God is the only true God, can you not find talented teachers to convey the message, without establishing your beliefs into civil laws, under which everyone is coerced? The gradient is too wildly vast to say that your interpretation of the Bible is the proper version by which everybody shall be burdened. I do not want to live under Kim Davis’s version of my Bible, nor would I expect her to be burdened by my interpretation. One hundred years from now, the tide may change and we may find that we are burdened by a different God entirely, should the precedence be set, now, by foolish Texans and Tea Partiers. Jesus and John the Baptist didn’t run up to Herod and say, “establish these laws of ours.” Their words transform hearts. It will be ineffective to establish religion into civic laws, as years from now, these laws may, well, be overturned and set on a shelf, futility. If you believe in the Word, sing it from the rooftops, tell it to the mountain, establish a way to convey God’s message in a convincing manner through talent and faith, but coercion by civil laws is throwing resources down a rat-hole. If you have faith in your Father’s Word, that should be enough to grow 70 times 70 hearts and minds. Establishing your religious beliefs in civil law, without transforming hearts, is a temporary measure, oppressive, and sure to fail.
If these church leaders were worth their salt, they would not need to resort to oppression and coercion. The Church has lost its way. They cannot spiritually feed the flock. The leaders are tangled in the thorns of this world. Separation protects. Mixing politics into religion supplants the Word. Christ was not a politician. He was not of this world. His Word was His authority. His example didn’t include oppression, but rather, free will. Any pastor, priest, or pope stating otherwise is nefarious and none of Christ’s.
Separation of Church and State protects the Spiritually minded in our Country, as well as those who have no religious interests. You are free to worship whomever you deem true and found a Church that teaches your version of the Bible, but keep your personal beliefs to yourself. Your God is not to be pushed onto North American society via civil laws. Oppression is not the example set for you by Jesus and anyone who says so is dark. Strife and rancor is not the way to teach God’s Word. The Word is not to be compromised by politics, nor by those itching for a fight.
VivaViejo
Married four times!
“The marriages are documented in court records obtained by U.S. News, which show that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis divorced three times, first in 1994, then 2006 and again in 2008.
She gave birth to twins five months after divorcing her first husband. They were fathered by her third husband but adopted by her second. Davis worked at the clerk’s office at the time of each divorce and has since remarried.”
—–
1 Corinthians 7:10-11:
To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
VivaViejo
@VivaViejo:
Link to the article reporting her many marriages:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/09/01/kentucky-clerk-fighting-gay-marriage-has-wed-four-times
CarolR
I wish people would stop commenting on Davis’s age, weight, style of dress, ugliness, etc. Those features are completely irrelevant and such comments about them are offensive to older overweight women who actually support the right of same-sex couples to marry. Hating people on the basis of their appearance, age, and weight is just as bad as hating them for their sexual orientation. Further, such comments distract from the real issues.