William Smith Jr. and James “Jim” Yates on Friday morning became the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in Rowan County, Kentucky. Joe Davis said he took the deputies out to dinner Thursday night and told them he was proud of them. Her lawyers have asked Bunning to stop the issuing of marriage licenses while that case is pending. In her absence, same-sex couples are flocking to the courthouse to get married.
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U.S. District Judge David Bunning said Davis would remain behind bars until she complies. Her attorneys planned a news conference later Friday.
After sending Davis to jail, Bunning threatened each of her six employees with the same fate if they followed her lead and refused to comply with his order. In 2004, voters approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage with 73 percent of the vote.
On Saturday, a white banner spray-painted with the black letters “Kim Davis POW” was placed near the jail entrance and a bagpipe and drum corps from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property played “You’re a Grand Old Flag” and marched to the detention center. Deputy clerk Brian Mason, who had a sign in the office reading “marriage license deputy”, shook their hands and congratulated them. While Staver claims there would be “easy ways to resolve this”, it would require an executive order from Governor Steve Beshear.
Numerous supporters made the 128km trek from neighbouring Rowan County, where Davis is employed, the channel said. “Just because five Supreme Court judges make a ruling, it’s not a law”. In it, the Court ruled that no one with African ancestry could be a citizen of the United States and voided prior legislation that had blocked the expansion of slavery into parts of the country. “It’s necessary in this case”, he said. But either way, Vladek said, the argument about the Supreme Court is irrelevant.
He said he had no authority to relieve county clerks of their statutory duties by executive order.
“You have to go with it”, Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe“.
“I have no animosity toward anyone and harbour no ill will. To me this has never been a gay or lesbian issue. This is about upholding the word of God”. Davis, an Apostolic Christian, believes gay marriage is a sin.
A Democrat, Davis earns about $80,000 a year in the elected office, according to state officials.
Davis is being legally represented at no cost by Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian religious advocacy organization.
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Emotions have run high on all sides as Davis and an attorney for one of the four couples who sued said they had received death threats.
