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| FILE - In this July 20, 2015 file photo, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, right, walks with her attorney Roger Gannam into the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky in Covington, Ky. The Rowan County, Ky., clerk's office turned away gay couples who sought marriage licenses on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015, defying a federal judge's order that said deeply held Christian beliefs don't excuse officials from following the law. The fight in Rowan County began soon after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide in June. Davis cited her religious beliefs and decided not to issue marriage licenses to any couple, gay or straight. |
MOREHEAD, Ky.
(AP) -- A federal judge on Monday gave a Kentucky county clerk room to
continue denying marriage licenses to gays and lesbians while she takes
her religious objections case to an appellate court.
U.S.
District Judge David Bunning ordered Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis last
week to issue licenses to two gay couples, and ruled Monday that she is
not entitled to any more delays. But because "emotions are running high
on both sides of this debate," he also stayed his decision while she
takes her case to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal.
Attorneys
on both sides disagreed about the implications. Dan Canon, representing
the gay couples, said Davis remains under the judge's order. But Mat
Staver, who represents Davis and is the founder of Florida-based Liberty
Counsel, said the convoluted order essentially grants her request for
more time.
What is clear is that Davis will
continue refusing to issue marriage licenses to anyone in this county of
about 23,000 people, home to Morehead State University in the
Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky. Until the case is resolved,
no new wedding can be legally recognized in Rowan County unless the
couple obtains a marriage license somewhere else.
"This
is not something I decided because of this decision that came down,"
Davis testified in federal court last month. "It was thought-out and,
you know, I sought God on it."
Clerking has
been a family business in Rowan County. Davis worked for her mother for
27 years before replacing her in the elected post this year, and her son
Nathan now works for her. He personally turned away a gay couple last
week.
Around the U.S., most opponents of gay
and lesbian marriage rights are complying with the high court. Some
other objectors in Kentucky submitted to the legal authorities after
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear told them to begin issuing licenses to
same-sex couples, or resign.
Kim Davis is one
of the last holdouts, and apparently the first to be challenged in
federal court, putting her and tiny Rowan County middle of one of the
country's largest social upheavals.
Davis
wants Kentucky lawmakers to allow county clerks to opt out of issuing
marriage licenses for religious reasons. But the governor has declined
to call a special session. Davis faces fines and possible jail time for
contempt of court meanwhile if she loses her challenge and still refuses
to issue licenses. But she can only be impeached from her $80,000 a
year job by the legislature, and impeachment proceedings are unlikely
even after the lawmakers reconvene in January.
Davis'
lawyers compare her to other religious objectors, such as a nurse being
forced to perform an abortion, a non-combatant ordered to fire on an
enemy soldier, or a state official forced to participate in a convicted
prisoner's execution.
Bunning disagreed. Davis
is "free to believe that marriage is a union between one man and one
woman, as many Americans do. However, her religious convictions cannot
excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform
as Rowan County Clerk," he wrote last week.
Nevertheless,
the judge's convoluted ruling on Monday effectively imposes more
delays, not only on the couples suing Davis, but on anyone else in Rowan
County who wants to get licensed to marry in the place where they live,
work and pay taxes.
Davis said it would
violate her Christian beliefs to issue a license to a same-sex couple
that has her name on it, and she has her supporters for standing firm.
"If
she was to say `Well, you know, I need my job, I'm going to do what
they say do,' she would be letting down her faith," said Joe Riley, an
evangelist who says he attended church with Davis at Morehead First
Apostolic Church.
Davis, through her attorney,
declined to be interviewed. Acquaintances describe her as easy-going
but reserved. She hid behind her attorneys to avoid being photographed
in a courthouse hallway and had to be told to speak up from the witness
stand.
Beneath her quiet nature lies a
steadfast resolve not to compromise, even after a video of her refusing
to issue a license to a gay couple, David Ermold and David Moore,
generated more than a million views online.
Shortly
after she took office in January, she said she wrote every state
lawmaker she could and pleaded to change the law, to no avail. So, on
June 26th -- the day the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage
nationwide -- Davis told her staff not to process any more licenses
until further notice, no matter who asks.
Under
Kentucky law, marriages must be licensed by a county clerk, who first
determines if the couple meets all legal requirements - such as being
unmarried, and old enough. And because every license issued in Rowan
County is under her authority, she feels she can't delegate the job to a
non-objector.
"If I say that I authorize that, I'm saying I agree with it, and I can't," Davis told the court.
Rowan
County Judge Executive Walter Blevins can issue marriage licenses if
the clerk is "absent," but the term is undefined in state law. Both
Blevins and Bunning decided Davis not issuing licenses for religious
reasons does not mean she is absent. That leaves Davis, for now, firmly
in control.
Davis said her beliefs on sin are
shaped by "God's holy word" in the Bible, and that she attends church
"every time the doors are open." She also leads a weekly women's Bible
study at the county jail.
"I love them. They're the best part of my Monday," Davis said.
Davis
testified that the Bible teaches that marriage is between one man and
one woman and that sex outside of marriage is a sin. Court records
indicate Davis herself married when she was 18 in 1984, filed for
divorce 10 years later, and then filed for divorce again, from another
husband, in 2006.
Many Christians believe
divorce also is a sin, and an attorney for the same-sex couples
repeatedly questioned her about this in court. Asked if she would
religiously object to issuing a marriage license to someone who has been
divorced, she said "That's between them and God."
Davis has not said how she would react should she lose her appeal.
"I'll deal with that when the time comes," she said.
