Kentucky County Clerk Jailed For Refusing To Issue Marriage Licenses To Same-Sex Couples

Kim Davis, the county clerk who refuses to do her legal duty issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples but also refuses to quit the position so that someone else might has been jailed .

Judge David Bunning, holding her in contempt of court, told her that he was a Catholic with his own religious beliefs, but “public officials must uphold the law.” Her failure to comply with the earlier court order, he said, could not be justified on religious grounds.

Bunning added that a custodial remedy was necessary because her supporters would simply pay her fines. “Oaths mean things,” he told her before she was led away.

Davis cannot be easily fired as she is an elected official, requiring an unlikely act of the Kentucky legislature or criminal conviction. Rowan County Clerk Kim testified Monday in a Federal Court hearing that she had prayed over her decision to refuse marriage licenses for gay couples and that she believes she is “upholding the constitution.”

“It wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment decision,” she said. “It was thought out, and I sought God on it.”

After she was ordered to do her job and her appeals were rejected, Davis reportedly ceased issuing marriage licenses to anyone.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in August that marriage is a fundamental right available to same-sex couples. Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear had already ordered Davis, along with other clerks in the state, to comply with the decision.