KENTUCKY: Anti-Gay Clerk Files Religious Discrimination Suit Against Governor

The Liberty Counsel is suing Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear on behalf of renegade county clerk Kim Davis. Via the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Late Tuesday, Davis filed a lawsuit against Beshear in federal district court. She blamed the governor for instructing all 120 of the state's county clerks to comply with this summer's U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage. Beshear's stance left dissenting county clerks vulnerable to lawsuits, including two that she currently faces, filed by groups of her constituents, Davis said. U.S. District Judge David Bunning is expected to rule in these cases in coming days. "The Commonwealth of Kentucky, acting through Governor Beshear, has deprived Davis of her religious-conscience rights guaranteed by the United States and Kentucky constitutions and laws, by insisting that Davis issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples contrary to her conscience, based on her sincerely held religious beliefs," Davis' lawsuit says.

The suit also names the head of the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, which changed the marriage license forms to gender-neutral.

The Liberty Counsel has issued a press release:

“Governor Beshear is unlawfully picking and choosing the conscience-based exemptions to marriage that he deems acceptable,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. When Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway refused to defend Kentucky’s natural marriage laws after “pray[ing] over this decision,” Governor Beshear did not command that he perform his duties, but hired private attorneys to pursue the appeal. “In no uncertain terms, Governor Beshear’s policies and directives are intended to suppress religion—even worse, a particular religious belief,” Liberty Counsel’s complaint points out. “Thus, although Attorney General Conway was given a pass for his conscience about marriage without any threats of repercussion, clerks like Davis are being repeatedly told by their Governor to abandon their religiously informed beliefs or resign.” “Simply put, Governor Beshear is making secularism a litmus test for holding office in Kentucky,” said Mat Staver. “The governor is forcing clerks like Davis to choose between following the precepts of her religion and forfeiting her position, on the one hand, and abandoning one of the precepts of her religion in order to keep her position, on the other,” Staver concluded.

The ruling in the ACLU's suit against Davis is expected next week. (Tipped by JMG reader Allen)

KENTUCKY: Liberty Counsel Lawyer Says Plaintiffs Don't Really Want To Get Married

"We were able to see through her testimony that this case, more and more, is really about the plaintiffs wanting to force Kim Davis to issue a marriage license despite her sincerely held religious beliefs. It's not about the plaintiffs' desire to get married. They drove two hours to a county where they could have gotten a license if they wanted one. They drove an hour last week to court to a county where they could've gotten a license if they wanted one. And they could've gotten a license in just about every county in between that they passed through if they had wanted one. Just as Justice Alito predicted in his dissent in Obergefell secularists are trying to 'stamp out every vestige of dissent' by targeting people of faith who do not agree with same-sex marriage." - Liberty Counsel senior attorney Roger Gannam, declaring that since the plaintiffs drove to a different county to attend the hearing of the ACLU's lawsuit, they don't really want to get married.

KENTUCKY: Clerk Kim Davis Testifies That She "Prayed And Fasted" About Denying Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

Infamous Kentucky county clerk and alleged dog-napping conspirator Kim Davis took the stand today in the ACLU's lawsuit against her for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Via the local CBS affiliate:

Davis told the court she's an apostolic Christian and her religion says that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. She says her right to freedom of religion affords her the ability to deny same-sex licenses because she believes the wording on the certificate means she's authorizing the license. Davis said that is something she can't do. "If I authorize it, I'm saying I agree with it. I can't do that," she said. An attorney representing the couples who are suing Davis asked her how far a clerk could take their religious beliefs when it comes to denying licenses. He asked, for example, whether a clerk could refuse a license if they did not believe interracial marriage was biblical. He also asked whether a clerk could deny a license to someone who wanted to get remarried after a divorce. Davis said she couldn't speak for anyone else and didn't answer any hypothetical questions. The plaintiff's attorney asked Davis if she would change her position if the judge orders her to issue those licenses. She said she'd deal with that when the time comes.

More from Kentucky.com:

"It was something I had prayed and fasted over. ... It wasn't a spur of the moment decision," Davis told U.S. District Judge David Bunning, her voice breaking. To authorize licenses, she said, means "I'm saying I agree with it, and I can't." Her choice to also deny licenses to straight couples was because "I didn't want to discriminate against anyone." Two of those straight couples and two gay couples from Rowan County sued Davis shortly after her office stopped issuing marriage licenses to anyone in the wake of the June 26 decision by the Supreme Court, which overturned Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage and declared the practice legal across the country.  After the hearing, Davis' lawyer, Roger Gannam of Liberty Counsel, a non-profit firm that specializes in religious-freedom cases, said the plaintiffs could have obtained licenses in Ashland, the site of the previous hearing, or in Covington. "This case is not about these plaintiffs' desire to get married," Gannam said. "This case is about the plaintiffs' desire to force Kim Davis to approve and authorize their marriages in violation of her Constitutionally protected religious beliefs."

The judge said today that he will issue his ruling during the week of August 11th. Kentucky's county clerks are elected and can only be removed by the state legislature, which does not reconvene until January. Renegade clerks face jail time for contempt of court should they refuse an order to issue licenses.