A Kentucky county clerk announced Monday that she would not interfere with her office granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples, ending, for now, a confrontation that put her behind bars for five days for defying a federal judge.
As she returning to her office Monday, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis read a statement saying she would not interfere with her deputies issuing the licenses, but would not personally authorize any marriage licenses to any same-sex couples.
“I don’t want to have this conflict. I don’t want to be in the spotlight. And I certainly don’t want to be a whipping post,” Davis said during televised remarks. “I am no hero. I’m just a person that’s been transformed by the grace of God, who wants to work, be with my family. I just want to serve my neighbors quietly without violating my conscience.”
District Judge David L. Bunning earlier this month surprised many by sending Davis to jail for contempt after she failed to follow his order to issue marriage licenses to all couples, including gays.
On Sept. 8, the judge found that her deputies had issued the licenses, so the contempt citation was cleared and Davis was let out of jail with a sharp warning that if she interfered in the issuance of the licenses, she would be returned to a cell.
The bottom line for Davis is that if she tries to block the marriage licenses, she could be sent back to jail. If she accepts that her office is issuing the licenses, she could disappoint many of her fundamentalist Christian supporters who have backed her stand against same-sex marriage based on her religious beliefs.
“I don’t know exactly what she is going to do,” Mat Staver, her attorney, told CNN on Sunday. “That is Kim’s ultimate decision.”
Staver is the founder and CEO of Liberty Counsel, which identifies itself as a Christian ministry “dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.”
Its opponents, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, have called it an anti-LGBT group.
Davis’ stand against issuing the marriage licenses has attracted support from sources across the conservative spectrum, including GOP presidential hopefuls Mike Huckabee and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Huckabee, a former Baptist minister who often reaches out to religious conservatives, said Davis exercised her religious freedom by denying the marriage licenses.
“If somebody has to go to jail, I’m willing to go in her place. I believe that,” said Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, who escorted Davis from the jail to a victory rally last week. “She has shown more courage than any politician I know. She not only said something, she was willing to put her life at risk.”
Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses the day after the U.S. Supreme Court in June held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.
An Apostolic Christian, Davis said her religious beliefs prevented her from giving a marriage license to gays so she stopped issuing licenses to all couples.
Two gay and two straight couples sued Davis, who lost on the district court and appellate court levels. The Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal.
Those decisions set up her appearance on Sept. 3 before Bunning, who could have fined Davis. Instead, he chose to have her jailed until she was willing to comply with his order to issue the licenses.
Davis never did, but five of her deputies agreed to issue the licenses. The sixth deputy, Davis’ son, Nathan, followed his mother and refused to issue the licenses.
The judge noted that the licenses had been altered so that Rowan County, rather than the name Kim Davis, appeared on the documents. It was unclear whether that change would be enough to satisfy Davis.
Over the Labor Day weekend, attorneys representing Davis asked the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to free her and force the governor of Kentucky to make accommodations for her beliefs. They also asked the appeals court to overturn Bunning’s contempt ruling.
Bunning acted separately from those appeals, which Staver said would be continued.
Staver has insisted that the marriage licenses issued by the deputies were invalid because Davis never agreed to issue them.
But state officials, including Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear disagreed.
“Those marriage licenses are legal,” he told local reporters last week in Lexington, Kentucky., about 60 miles from Rowan County. Beshear called on the state to move beyond the dispute.
The governor has also refused to call a special legislative session to change state law, which now gives the authority to issue marriage licenses solely to each of the state’s 120 county clerks.
The Legislature could change the law, but that won’t happen until it reconvenes in January.
Meanwhile, not everyone has been praising Davis.
A billboard defending gay marriage and condemning Davis’ action was erected in Davis’ hometown of Morehead, Kentucky. The billboard shows a cow and three goats, an apparent biblical reference to women being sold into marriage.
“Dear Kim Davis, the fact that you can’t sell your daughter for three goats and a cow means we’ve already redefined marriage,” the billboard says.
Planting Peace President Aaron Jackson told NBC News that the billboard cost $500 and will stay up for a month.
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