Defiant clerk may avoid jail as deputies agree to follow law

ASHLAND, Ky. — A federal judge ordered a defiant county clerk to jail Thursday for refusing court orders to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, but five of her deputy clerks later agreed to follow the law, setting up possible resolution.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning said he had no choice but to jail Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis for contempt after she insisted that her “conscience will not allow” her to follow federal court rulings on gay marriage.

“God’s moral law conflicts with my job duties,” Davis told the judge before a federal marshal escorted her out. “You can’t be separated from something that’s in your heart and in your soul.”

The judge then sought a resolution that would keep Davis out of jail after all. He told her six deputies that they are free to follow the law, overruling an objection from her lawyer, who argued that they can’t act against the clerk’s authority. All but the clerk’s son, Nathan Davis, later promised to comply.

The judge said that neither Nathan Davis nor his mother would have to be jailed as long as the others issue licenses to both gay and heterosexual couples. He then ordered that Kim Davis be returned to his courtroom, and said she would go free as long as she agrees not to interfere.

“Her good faith belief is simply not a viable defense,” Bunning said, noting that allowing an individual’s beliefs to supersede the court’s authority would set a dangerous precedent.

“I myself have genuinely held religious beliefs,” the judge said, but “I took an oath.”

“Mrs. Davis took an oath,” he added. “Oaths mean things.”

Hundreds of people chanted and screamed, “Love won! Love won!” as word reached the dueling crowds outside.

Davis is being represented by the Liberty Counsel, an organization that advocates in court for religious freedoms. Before she was led away, Davis explained that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June that legalized gay marriage nationwide conflicts with the vows she made when she became a born-again Christian.

“I promised to love Him with all my heart, mind and soul because I wanted to make heaven my home,” Davis said, telling the judge how she became a Christian.

April Miller, who has been denied a marriage license four times by Davis or her deputies, testified that she voted for Kim Davis and has no desire to change the clerk’s personal beliefs, but wants to be treated equally in the community where she lives. One of the deputy clerks told her to apply in a different county, but “that’s kind of like saying we don’t want gays or lesbians here. We don’t think you are valuable,” she said.

The judge later questioned each of the deputy clerks, and produced promises of compliance from five of them.

“I don’t really want to, but I will comply with the law,” said one, Melissa Thompson. “I’m a preacher’s daughter and this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life,” she added. “I don’t hate anybody … None of us do.”

Davis, an Apostolic Christian whose critics mock her for being on her fourth marriage, stopped issuing licenses to all couples after the Supreme Court ruling, and the courts consistently ruled against her since then. But many supporters have rallied around her, including Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Bobby Jindal.

“People are calling the office all the time asking to send money,” she testified. “I myself have not solicited any money.”

Davis said she hopes the Legislature will change Kentucky laws to find some way for her to keep her job while following her conscience. But unless the governor convenes a costly special session, they won’t meet until next year. “Hopefully our legislature will get something taken care of,” Davis told the judge.

Until then, the judge said, he has no alternative but to keep her behind bars as long as she refuses to follow the law.

“The legislative and executive branches do have the ability to make changes,” Bunning said. “It’s not this court’s job to make changes. I don’t write law.”

Davis served as her mother’s deputy in the clerk’s office for 27 years before she was elected as a Democrat to succeed her mother in November. As an elected official, she can be removed only if the Legislature impeaches her, which is unlikely in a deeply conservative state.

Judge Bunning is the son of Jim Bunning, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies who served two terms as Kentucky’s junior U.S. Senator. Former Republican President George W. Bush nominated David Bunning for a lifetime position as a federal judge in 2001 when he was just 35 years old, halfway through his dad’s first term in the Senate.

But Bunning has been anything but a sure thing for conservative causes, ruling in 2007 to overturn a partial-birth abortion ban, and in 2003 to allow a Gay-Straight Alliance to meet on their high school campus.