Kim Davis - Kentucky's theocratic ruler

[Jimmy Higgins]

America has won every battle it has fought, and if America ever lost it was because god was punishing us for the gays.

We never lost.
Viet Nam was just because the liberals wouldn't let us fund the war anymore.

Uh huh. Whatever, we all know your Atheism in the military is what cost us Vietnam... retroactively. Because God knew and was sending the troops a warning, and you didn't heed it and we lost Vietnam because of it.

 

[Keith&Co.]

We never lost.
Viet Nam was just because the liberals wouldn't let us fund the war anymore.

Uh huh. Whatever, we all know your Atheism in the military is what cost us Vietnam... retroactively. Because God knew and was sending the troops a warning, and you didn't heed it and we lost Vietnam because of it.

Yes, I heard that sermon underway, too.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

CNN: Judge orders Kentucky clerk Kim Davis to be released from jail.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judge-orders-kim-davis-freed-kentucky-jail-n423541

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Kentucky clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples may leave prison — as long as she doesn't interfere with the licenses that her deputies have been granting since her incarceration last week.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Or even put in large quotations....

I wonder if the requirement of one party being a female is a problem?

Oops, that law doesn't work very well!

I wonder if her objections would have worked better if she had refused to issue them based upon the fact that the law can't be followed as written. (Gays: There's no female residing in the county, can't issue a license. Lesbians. It says "the", which woman is that? Although if both lesbians resided in the county they could make a case that the "the" is moot.)


I also note that the law as written precludes the workaround suggested by some conservatives of going elsewhere. The license is to be issued where the female resides, that means no other county in the state can issue them a license. I guess they don't have any destination weddings there. (Such a law would go over like a lead balloon here, we have a lot of people who come here to get married. Most of the major casinos have wedding chapels inside! (Note that the access is usually quite inconspicuous, only once have I ever spotted one. The ads for them are much easier to spot, though.))

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Damn librul judges letting dangerous offenders out of jail to rampage through the streets like the thugs they are.

Thanks, Obama.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Somebody bribed that judge with a case of Diet Dew.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I wonder if her objections would have worked better if she had refused to issue them based upon the fact that the law can't be followed as written. (Gays: There's no female residing in the county, can't issue a license. Lesbians. It says "the", which woman is that? Although if both lesbians resided in the county they could make a case that the "the" is moot.)

It appears to me that the whole 'the female' part, and the county of her residence, is moot if neither applicant is under 18.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I wonder if the requirement of one party being a female is a problem?

Oops, that law doesn't work very well!

I wonder if her objections would have worked better if she had refused to issue them based upon the fact that the law can't be followed as written. (Gays: There's no female residing in the county, can't issue a license. Lesbians. It says "the", which woman is that? Although if both lesbians resided in the county they could make a case that the "the" is moot.)


I also note that the law as written precludes the workaround suggested by some conservatives of going elsewhere. The license is to be issued where the female resides, that means no other county in the state can issue them a license. I guess they don't have any destination weddings there. (Such a law would go over like a lead balloon here, we have a lot of people who come here to get married. Most of the major casinos have wedding chapels inside! (Note that the access is usually quite inconspicuous, only once have I ever spotted one. The ads for them are much easier to spot, though.))

There are lots of laws states have on their books that have been rendered moot and unconstitutional. There's nothing special about this one.

 

[jonatha]

I also note that the law as written precludes the workaround suggested by some conservatives of going elsewhere. The license is to be issued where the female resides, that means no other county in the state can issue them a license.

The proscription that the license be issued in the county of residency only applies if "the female party" is under 18 and not a widow...

- - - Updated - - -

CNN: Judge orders Kentucky clerk Kim Davis to be released from jail.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judge-orders-kim-davis-freed-kentucky-jail-n423541

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Kentucky clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples may leave prison — as long as she doesn't interfere with the licenses that her deputies have been granting since her incarceration last week.

Bunning already offered her that deal and she turned him down. I wonder why the 6th circuit thinks she'll pay any more attention to them than to Bunning...

ETA - I suspect any gay couples in Rowan County who wanted a marriage license have already gotten it, so it may be awhile before she has the opportunity to interfere.

If she then does, I expect the 6th circuit, as conservative as it may be, to come down on her like ton of bricks.

 

[maxparrish]

Most here, as well as I, are absolutely correct on the core issues:

I agree she must do her job and job duties. She swore an oath, its part of her legal responsibilities as an elected official, and her job/office function as outlined in Kentucky law. And if she won't do her job, she ought to quit. Its clear that part of her legal duties are to provide marriage licences, and refusing to process and record them is a violation of those duties.

And if she chooses civil disobedience and won't either do the job or quit, she should be prevented from obstructing others doing the job, and if need be to sit in jail till she agrees. And the fact that it is easy to obtain marriage licenses elsewhere is no reason to overlook her abuse of public office. If she won't execute her legal duties she ought to be impeached.

As for religious accommodation, the ONLY accommodation that I find tolerable is that which does not shift any work to others (or other counties), is nearly costless, and does not function her job and workplace.

Still, I find the rhetoric curious. Vilification and sneering over her religious life, mockery of her personal convictions, sneering at her size and looks, ridicule of her prior married life, etc. "The NAZI COW" and the "ayatollah" is being pilloried for more than her actions or reasoning, but her very existence as a religious person.

So if such nation-wide excoriation is warranted for a near nobody in rural Kentucky, then it is for others - and the more important or of stature they are, the more they have earned it. Right?

Among those "job derelicts" who won't do their job and legal duties, and have seemed to escape the MSM and a blistering by left of center professional Christian haters:

- The Muslim Flight Attendant who refuses to serve alcohol.

- Pacifist postal workers who had religious objections to processing draft registration forms

- The Vegan bus driver who refused to handout coupons for free burgers in a bus company promotion.

- The Christians and Jews who refuse to work on Saturday.

- The President of the United States and the former Attorney General.

Now get on it folks, surely the "NAZI COW" is not the only one failing to follow their oaths and/or the duties of her office or job.

 

[skepticalbip]

I wonder how long this circus would have been allowed to continue if it had been a homosexual that was elected to the clerk position and they "in good conscious" refused to issue marriage licenses to heterosexual couples.

 

[laughing dog]

Most here, as well as I, are absolutely correct on the core issues:

I agree she must do her job and job duties. She swore an oath, its part of her legal responsibilities as an elected official, and her job/office function as outlined in Kentucky law. And if she won't do her job, she ought to quit. Its clear that part of her legal duties are to provide marriage licences, and refusing to process and record them is a violation of those duties.

And if she chooses civil disobedience and won't either do the job or quit, she should be prevented from obstructing others doing the job, and if need be to sit in jail till she agrees. And the fact that it is easy to obtain marriage licenses elsewhere is no reason to overlook her abuse of public office. If she won't execute her legal duties she ought to be impeached.

As for religious accommodation, the ONLY accommodation that I find tolerable is that which does not shift any work to others (or other counties), is nearly costless, and does not function her job and workplace.

Still, I find the rhetoric curious. Vilification and sneering over her religious life, mockery of her personal convictions, sneering at her size and looks, ridicule of her prior married life, etc. "The NAZI COW" and the "ayatollah" is being pilloried for more than her actions or reasoning, but her very existence as a religious person.

No. I conclude those people are pointing out her hypocrisy not her "very existence as a religious person".

 

[jonatha]

Although Davis's attorneys appealed Bunning's contempt citation to the 6th Circuit, it apparently was Bunning himself who issued the release.

It is not clear from the news reports I have seen whether the 6th Circuit had anything to do with this, or if Davis agreed not to interfere with her deputies, or if Bunning simply decided there were no more problematic licenses likely to be requested at this point.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Now get on it folks, surely the "NAZI COW" is not the only one failing to follow their oaths and/or the duties of her office or job.

 

[jonatha]

Bunning's release order carries the stipulation that Davis will not interfere with the deputy clerks and instructs counsel for the deputy clerks to report on her adherence or lack thereof every two weeks.

I have read that she has already said she will violate those terms, and that this will open her to a contempt citation for a relatively long (12-18 months) period that cannot be shortened.

I expect her to be back in jail be the end of the month.

 

[Malintent]

What should have happened

What this worker should have done is report to her superiors that the change in law regarding the issuance of marriage certificates to same-sex couples represented something to her that could not be reconciled with her deeply held beliefs. As a result, she should have requested that she be excused from those duties. It was not her fault at all that the nature of her job changed. her approach should have been to seek a pass on that duty and have it assigned to someone else.

One of two things could have happened from there. Either:
1) she is given the pass and everyone is happy.
2) she is told that she could not keep her job if she was not going to be able to adapt to the change in responsibility.

If her employer chose option 2, then she could have either:
1) sought employment in a place where the job duties did not offend her (and are not likely to change in the future)
2) filed suit against the town for creating a hostile work environment for her, and wrongful termination.

Her chosen path was filled with inappropriate actions on her part, causing harm to people, and the reputation of the town she was charged to serve. I am glad she saw a few days in jail for this. It sends the right message to other would-be government-worker terrorists like her.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Her chosen path was filled with inappropriate actions on her part, causing harm to people, and the reputation of the town she was charged to serve. I am glad she saw a few days in jail for this. It sends the right message to other would-be government-worker terrorists like her.

I don't know about that. Her goal was to get herself martyred for her beliefs and she went ahead and got herself martyred for her beliefs.

Her supporters don't see her as a tragic figure who serves as an object lesson for what not to do, they see her more as a Nelson Mandela for Christians who was willing to go to jail rather than compromise on a moral issue. When you add in the amount of money she's going to get from the rightwing talkshow and conference circuits, this was a tremendously successful action on her part which others are more likely to try and emulate as opposed to avoid.

 

[Keith&Co.]

It was not her fault at all that the nature of her job changed.

But the nature of her job did not change.
She does not perform weddings nor does she need to approve of the couples asking for a license. At no point does her signature imply that she approves of divorcees getting married, or remarried, or adulterers, or transgendered individuals, same sex couples, non-virgins, Yankees, Red Sox fans, Vegans or Goths who want to get married at the cemetery 'so that Grandma can be there.'

Her job is to record that two people have met the legal requirements necessary to be wed in Kentucky. Those requirements have changed. Her job has not.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Although Davis's attorneys appealed Bunning's contempt citation to the 6th Circuit, it apparently was Bunning himself who issued the release.

It is not clear from the news reports I have seen whether the 6th Circuit had anything to do with this, or if Davis agreed not to interfere with her deputies, or if Bunning simply decided there were no more problematic licenses likely to be requested at this point.

I think he's giving her enough rope to hang herself, personally.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Her chosen path was filled with inappropriate actions on her part, causing harm to people, and the reputation of the town she was charged to serve. I am glad she saw a few days in jail for this. It sends the right message to other would-be government-worker terrorists like her.

I don't know about that. Her goal was to get herself martyred for her beliefs and she went ahead and got herself martyred for her beliefs.

Her supporters don't see her as a tragic figure who serves as an object lesson for what not to do, they see her more as a Nelson Mandela for Christians who was willing to go to jail rather than compromise on a moral issue. When you add in the amount of money she's going to get from the rightwing talkshow and conference circuits, this was a tremendously successful action on her part which others are more likely to try and emulate as opposed to avoid.

Will she actually be interesting enough to make money?