GRAYSON, Kentucky (AP) — A judge on Tuesday ordered the release of a U.S. county clerk who was held in contempt of court and jailed for several days over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
___
TIME IN JAIL
U.S. District Judge David Bunning on Thursday ruled that Rowan County clerk Kim Davis was in contempt of court for refusing his order to issue marriage licenses. She was escorted from court by a U.S. marshal and was being held at the Carter County Detention Center in Grayson, Kentucky.
Bunning offered to release Davis if she would promise not to interfere with the five of her six employees who said they would start issuing licenses the next morning. But Davis rejected that offer and chose to stay in jail.
On Tuesday morning, attorneys for the four couples who originally sued in the case filed a report that Bunning requested to update him on their attempts to get marriage licenses. The notice said that three of the four couples — two gay, one straight — had successfully received licenses.
Shortly after the notice was filed, Bunning ordered Davis’ release. He also ordered her not to interfere with the issuing of marriage licenses from her office. Since she was jailed, deputy clerks in the office have granted licenses.
____
CLERK’S DEFENSE
Davis, an apostolic Christian, says gay marriage is a sin. She stopped issuing all marriage licenses in June the day after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized same-sex marriages nationwide. She says that because marriage licenses are issued under her authority, it would be a sin for her to grant them to same-sex couples.
“God’s moral law conflicts with my job duties,” Davis told the judge before she was jailed. “You can’t be separated from something that’s in your heart and in your soul.”
___
CURRENT APPEALS
On Monday, Davis’ attorneys filed yet another appeal in her case. In an emergency motion, they asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit for an order to have Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear accommodate Davis’ “religious conviction” and not force her to grant licenses to gay couples. Davis and Beshear are both Democrats.
Bunning denied a similar request last month.
If the appellate court grants the request, Beshear would have to allow Davis to remove her name and title from official marriage certificates issued in Rowan County. By doing that, Davis would no longer be in contempt and could be released from jail immediately, her attorneys say. She would not be sanctioning any same-sex unions and her conscience would be satisfied, they add.
Her lawyers also have appealed Bunning’s ruling that landed her in jail.
