Gay marriage: TX Attorney General advises clerks they can refuse marriage lic. on religious grounds

The SCOTUS Marriage Decision, in Haiku.

BY DANIELA LAPIDOUS

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Roberts’ dissent:

I support you all
No, really, I do, but this
Isn’t our problem.

Alito’s dissent:

“Happiness is not
the point of marriage, fools. It’s
BABIES,” he whispered.

Thomas’ dissent:

“Liberty” – this word,
I do not think Locke means what
You think it means. Sigh.

Scalia’s dissent:

You’re not a poet,
Kennedy. And by the way,
Democracy’s dead.

Kennedy’s majority decision:

Hark! Love is love, and
love is love is love is love.
It is so ordered.

All I can say is, corporations are people with the right to vote with money. If the Koch brothers ordered the conservative portion of the court to vote a reversal it would happen in a second. After all in our society we do as our masters tell us.

A Kentucky clerk refusing to issue marriage licenses has exhausted one more avenue, and must issue marriage licenses starting next week.

A Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue any marriage licenses since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in June lost an appeal of her case in the Sixth Circuit yesterday. The federal appeals court held that the clerk, Kim Davis, cannot cite her personal religious views as a reason to stop a government office from performing its duties.

Earlier today, Davis’ office once again defied the court by denying a marriage license to a same-sex couple trying to receive a license for a third time.

Mat Staver, the Liberty Counsel head who is representing Davis and encouraging other officials to commit anti-gay civil disobedience, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he will now take Davis’ case to the Supreme Court:

"It is disappointing, certainly for our client, because the ramifications of the ruling is that there are no religious freedom rights for individuals if you can say a case is just against the office. The problem with that is, individuals who hold public office don't forfeit their constitutional rights," said Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, the religious advocacy group representing Davis.

Davis will appeal one more rung up the ladder, to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who can intervene in 6th Circuit cases, Staver said.
While Staver claims that the clerk’s “constitutional rights” are being violated when she is required to perform her job duties, the appeals court points out that this is not a case of individual free speech: “[W]here a public employee’s speech is made pursuant to his duties, ‘the relevant speaker [is] the government entity, not the individual.’”

After being turned away for a marriage license for the third time last week, a Kentucky gay couple has sued Rowan County and clerk Kim Davis in federal court. Davis is already being sued by the ACLU. Via Lexington’s CBS affiliate:

The lawsuit was filed Aug. 25 in U.S. District Court by William Smith Jr. and James Yates, but a summons was delivered Monday to Rowan County Judge Executive Walter Blevins, who is named as a defendant with Davis and the county. Other defendants, including Davis, were expected to be served this week, attorneys have told WKYT. The lawsuit says Davis and Rowan County “willfully, intentionally, and with deliberate indifference” to the couple’s rights established a custom or policy to “refuse to issue marriage licenses to individuals eligible to marry in order to deny such individuals, including Smith and Yates, their Constitutional right to marry.” Smith and Yates suffered and “continue to suffer irreparable damage, including but not limited to embarrassment, humiliation, loss of family security and benefits accessible by other married couples,” according to the lawsuit. Smith and Yates are seeking a jury trial, a “reasonable amount” for compensatory and punitive damages and attorney fees. Davis has refused to issue marriage licenses, citing her Christian faith and constitutional right to religious liberty, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on June 26 that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states. She is being sued by the ACLU because her office stopped issuing marriage licenses.

Yates and Smith have been together for nine years.

DAVIS IS A PATRIOT