A defiant county clerk in Kentucky who has refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples says she will not accept a compromise that would have let her out of jail.
Attorneys for gay couples had proposed that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis be let out of custody if she promised not to interfere with her deputies, but the clerk refused.
Five of the six deputies have told U.S. District Judge David Bunning that that they will issue the licenses, though some of them said they were reluctant to do so.
Deputy clerk Melissa Thompson told Judge Bunning that she doesn’t really want to, but she will comply with the law.
She wept and said: “I’m a preacher’s daughter, and this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
And an attorney for deputy clerk Kristie Plank says she’s reluctant but will issues the licenses. The attorney cites Plank’s 11-year-old child and financial and family obligations, saying she can’t go to jail.
The lone holdout is Davis’ son. The judge says he won’t face any fine or jail time since the other deputies have agreed to issue the licenses.
Bunning says he didn’t make the decision lightly and said he doesn’t think Davis is combative. She has refused to issues licenses because of her religious beliefs about gay marriage.
But, Bunning said, “Her good faith belief is simply not a viable defense.”
Bunning also spoke of his own religious beliefs. But he said that the oath he took, and the oath Davis took, supersedes those beliefs.
Bunning also said that it’s not his job or the court’s job to write laws or make changes. But he noted that the legislative and executive branches can do so.
The White House says no one is above the law, including Davis.
President Barack Obama has yet to express his views on the matter, but White House press secretary Josh Earnest says “on principle, that the success of our democracy depends on the rule of law, and there’s no public official that is above the rule of law.”
Earnest added, “what’s important … is that this is the decision that’s supposed to be made by a federal judge, and so I would not, from this vantage point, second guess those decisions.”
