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Will Kim Davis Fire Her Deputies?
Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, freed from jail Tuesday, says she just wants an “accommodation” for her faith-based opposition to same-sex marriage, such as taking her name off marriage license forms, and ostensibly would not object to her deputies issuing licenses to same-sex couples. But now some of her supporters are saying she should fire the deputies who served such couples in her absence.
Ante Pavkovic, one of the organizers of recent pro-Davis rallies, marched into the Rowan County clerk’s office in Morehead, Ky., today, waving a sign at the deputy clerks that read, “Fire the cowardly clerks that are lawbreakers,” Reuters reports. He also told the clerks they should not continue to facilitate same-sex marriages, and a deputy sheriff asked him to leave.
Reuters asked one of Davis’s attorneys, Harry Mihet of right-wing group Liberty Counsel, if she would fire anyone, but he did not offer a direct answer, saying instead that Davis loves her deputies and was trying to make arrangements that would not violate the law or the deputies’ consciences.
Apparently, however, most of her deputies have no conscientious objections to issuing marriage licenses to all couples regardless of gender. Five of her six deputies expressed willingness to serve same-sex couples, with the lone holdout being her son, and several same-sex pairs did receive licenses in her absence. Mihet, though, told Reuters the deputies feared legal consequences if they did not issue the licenses.
But Brian Mason, the deputy designated by his colleagues to handle licenses for same-sex couples, told both Reuters and Louisville’s Courier-Journal today that he would continue to issue the licenses, even if Davis tells him not to.
Earlier reports had indicated Davis would return to her office Friday, but Liberty Counsel officials now say she will go back Monday. She was jailed last Thursday for contempt of court because she defied a federal judge’s order to comply with the law and issue licenses to all eligible couples; the same judge, David Bunning, freed her Tuesday because the willingness of deputies to serve same-sex couples satisfied his order. He also ordered Davis not to interfere with the licensing process when she returns to work — if she does, she could be sent back to jail.
Whether she will comply remains an open question. Her legal team has been cagey about how she will handle the matter, with Liberty Counsel attorney Mat Staver saying she “will not violate her conscience” and that nothing has changed because her name is still on the license forms. However, he also says the licenses her deputies issued to same-sex couples are null and void, as the deputies granted the licenses without Davis’s authorization.
Staver has urged Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear to call a special session of the legislature to deal with the license forms, but Beshear said Tuesday he will not do so. Two other county clerks are also refusing to issue licenses to same-sex couples; unlike Davis, they have not faced legal consequences because they have not been sued — yet. But that’s three counties out of 120 in the state, with the other 117 recognizing marriage equality as the law of the land.
www.advocate.com/marriage-equality/2015/9/09/will-kim-davis-fire-her-deputies
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