Updated at 1:39 p.m. ET
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis listens to a customer following
her refusal to issue marriage licenses at the Rowan County Courthouse
on Tuesday.
Timothy D. Easley/AP
A federal judge found a Kentucky clerk at the center of the
national debate over same-sex marriage in contempt of court after she
defied the Supreme Court by refusing to issue marriage licenses in
protest of such marriages.
Kentucky Public Radio's Ryland Barton reports
that District Judge David L. Bunning ordered Kim Davis taken into
custody by federal marshals "until she complies" with a court order.
Davis,
the Rowan County clerk, has become the most prominent elected official
to refuse to abide by a Supreme Court decision that made same-sex
marriage legal across the United States.
The plaintiffs in the
case had asked the judge to fine Davis until she complied, but Barton
reports that "the judge said that he wasn't convinced fines would have
compelled" Davis to issue licenses.
As we've reported,
a lower court had ordered Davis to issue marriage licenses, despite her
religious objections. She appealed and then went all the way up to the
U.S. Supreme Court to ask that the lower court's decision be put aside
while she waited for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to
issue an opinion on the matter.
On Monday,
the Supreme Court denied that stay, tacitly ordering Davis to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Davis has refused.
In a motion filed with the court Wednesday,
her lawyers argued that it is presently "impossible" for Davis to
comply with the court order because it "irreparably and irreversibly
violates her conscience by directing her to authorize and issue SSM
licenses bearing her name and approval."
Legal scholars disagree with that assessment.
Here's how Katherine Franke, a law professor at Columbia University, where she heads the
Public Rights/Private Conscience Project,
explained it to NPR's Robert Siegel earlier this week:
FRANKE:
She has absolutely no legal ground to stand on. As a public official,
she's supposed to abide by the law and perform her public duties, which
are issuing marriage licenses to qualified couples. Same-sex couples are
now qualified to marry in the state of Kentucky, so she is refusing to
do her job.
SIEGEL: But are there protections — even for public
officials — for some religious convictions that might, in some ways,
conflict with someone else's performance of the same job?
FRANKE:
Of course. Kim Davis has all sorts of religious liberty rights secured
under the First Amendment and under other laws. But they are not at
stake in this case. All she's asked to do with couples that come before
her is certify that they've met the state requirements for marriage. So
her religious opposition to same-sex marriage is absolutely irrelevant
in this context.
It's worth noting that
in an amicus brief filed Wednesday, Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers asked the court to "temper its response."
The
laws of the state, argues Stivers, have not yet caught up with the
Supreme Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal across the
whole United States.
In fact, Stivers argues, state law
currently contains penalties for performing prohibited marriages — such
as those between people who are "
nearer of kin ... than second cousins" — but does not contain penalties for refusing to issue licenses to those who are permitted to marry.
So, Stivers argues, the court should slow down and let the Legislature sort this out before holding Davis in contempt.
As we reported Wednesday,
because Davis is an elected official she cannot be fired from her job.
Instead, she would have to be impeached by the state's House of
Representatives and tried by the state's Senate.
Barton reports that she could be held in custody until she changes her mind or until her term ends four years from now.
Barton
tells our Newscast unit that the judge decided to put her in custody
after the plaintiffs questioned Davis on whether she had received offers
of financial support.
If there was the potential of an
"endless supply of money for her to pay her fines," she would have no
incentive to comply with the court order, the judge decided.
Update at 12:26 p.m. ET. Still Waiting:
The
hearing at the federal court in Ashland, Ky., was scheduled to begin at
11 a.m. ET. There are no cameras allowed inside the courthouse and
reporters are not being allowed to send dispatches.
That means we'll have to wait for an update until after the hearing is over. We'll update this post as soon as we receive word.
Kentucky Public Radio's Ryland Barton
is tweeting from the scene.
