“I love my deputy clerks and I hate that they have been caught in the middle”, Davis said.
Advertisement
Davis took several days off to spend with family following her high-profile release from the Carter County Detention Center last week.
The Rowan County Clerk, who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses, returned to work Monday. Instead, they will bear the phrase, “issued pursuant to a federal court order”. If she wasn’t an elected official, she’d get fired on the spot.
Though he disagreed with the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, Ortiz said it was his job as a clerk to carry out the laws of Colorado. Good question. If Governor Steve Beshear (D-Ky.) can take the words “husband” and “bride” off marriage licenses, why not Kim Davis’s name? If he does not, any legislative fixes will have to wait until at least next year.
The only couple to receive a license on Monday walked into a surreal scene.
“While my case may be the most visible, there are millions of others out there in the private and public sector who face and are in the same position. Do we really want to say that an otherwise competent employee must quit or go to jail if there is another alternative?”
By noon, a same-sex couple had received a license from Mason after some software trouble. Davis’ title, county clerk, was obscured.
The women were undaunted.
Moments later, the couple entered the clerk’s office and were met by a rowdy crowd of Kim Davis supporters.
Mason said that he spoke with Davis only briefly. They said they were reviewing their legal options. “She could fire them”.
Davis said earlier in the day that she would not issue or authorize the licenses, but she also wouldn’t interfere with her deputy clerk handing them out. But if the documents are altered to remove Davis’ name and title, a court may have to rule on their validity.
On Friday, Davis’ attorneys filed an appeal seeking another delay in issuing licenses.
Davis, an Apostolic Christian, stopped issuing licenses after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, in defiance of a series of court orders.
Kim Davis celebrates with Mike Huckabee, left and Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel celebrate her release from jail last week.
She made this decision based on her deeply held religious beliefs. Judge David Bunning ordered Kim Davis not to interfere with the work of the Kentucky deputies unless she wants to go back to jail.
Advertisement
Almost three in four Americans say that when a conflict arises between religious convictions and the need to treat everyone equally under the law, the law should prevail, according to new results from an ABC News/Washington Post poll out Tuesday. “She has not compromised her conscience, she has not compromised her faith and she has not quit serving the people of Rowan County that she loves very much”.
