Kim Davis: Resurrection?

Intolerant Kentucky County Clerk Kimberly Jean Bailey Davis will be running for reelection in 2018. Ms. Davis was imprisoned in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She was sprung after a federal judge determined that her deputy clerks were doing the work she shirked, providing equal justice under the law by issuing civil marriage licenses to all couples. Ms. Davis’s unconstitutional stunt cost the State of Kentucky $224,000 in court costs.

Kim Davis believes in marriage so strongly she’s had four of them. Her twins, born five months after her divorce from her first husband, were sired by her third husband and adopted by her fourth husband, who was also her second husband.

And family values are what the Rowan County Clerk’s Office is all about. When she was elected in 2014, Kim Davis hired her son to work in her county government office, just like her own mother, Rowan County Clerk for 37 years, had hired her. If Mrs. Davis ever decides to abdicate, surely her son will inherit the family business.

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Saint Kim of Kentucky Rescued From the Dungeon!

Free at last! Intolerant Rowan County Clerk Kimberly Jean Bailey Davis was sprung from Kentucky’s Carter County Detention Center on Tuesday. U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning determined that her deputy clerks were doing the work she shirked, providing equal justice under the law by issuing civil marriage licenses to all couples. The judge enjoined Mrs. Davis from preventing her deputies from performing her office’s official duties in issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples.

Mrs. Davis and her delusional lawyer claim that marriage licenses not issued by her are invalid. As Zack Ford points out, Kentucky statute 61.035 indicates otherwise: “Any duty enjoined by law or by the Rules of Civil Procedure upon a ministerial officer, and any act permitted to be done by him, may be performed by his lawful deputy.”

Martyr to the Cause of Intolerance

Rowan County Clerk Kimberly Jean Bailey Davis was led off by federal marshals, fingerprinted and photographed, and locked behind bars in the Carter County Detention Center in Grayson, Kentucky. Federal District Court Judge David L. Bunning found her in contempt for refusing his order to comply with the 14th Amendment and perform her sworn duty, issuing civil marriage licenses to same-sex couples. “Ms. Davis took an oath,” he said. “Oaths mean things.” She can get out when she agrees to provide equal protection under the law.

The judge chose not to fine Mrs. Davis, since her equally intolerant supporters would raise the money for her and she would feel no sense of compulsion to obey the law. Some Davis fans tried to set up a fundraising website for her, but GoFundMe’s policy forbids campaigns that aid any criminal defense. That doesn’t keep them from thinking of Kim Davis as the homophobe Rosa Parks, though.

Court: Virginia’s Racially Gerrymandered Congressional Map is Unconstitutional

On Friday a federal court panel reaffirmed an earlier decision throwing out Virginia’s map of congressional districts due to racial gerrymandering in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

“Virginia is widely believed to be one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. In 2012, Republican House candidates won just 51 percent of the votes cast in the state — but they ended up winning eight of the state’s 11 congressional districts.”

— “Virginia’s congressional map has been thrown out by judges for racial bias,” Andrew Prokop, Vox

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Alabama Supreme Court Secedes From Union Over Same-Sex Marriage

On Tuesday the Alabama Supreme Court ordered the state’s probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples, adding yet another wrinkle to a messy situation. The story so far:

On January 23rd Federal District Judge Callie Granade struck down two Alabama state laws banning same-sex marriage.

On February 8th Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered state probate judges to ignore the Federal court ruling.

On February 9th the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay the District Court’s decision, and on February 12th Judge Granade ordered the Mobile County Probate Judge to issue licenses to same-sex couples, and he and most Alabama judges complied.

On March 3rd, on a 7-1 ruling, with Chief Justice Roy Moore recusing himself, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a 138-page order for probate judges to cease granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

So why are Alabama judges standing in the courthouse door to prevent same-sex marriage, in defiance of a Federal court order? Is it … Jesus? Is it the Klan? Is this an echo of Alabama’s 33-year refusal to allow interracial marriage or some kind of nostalgia for the Confederacy?

Maybe. Mostly, it’s just politics. Alabama Supreme Court Judges are elected partisans, and their election depends on symbolic appeals to the state’s Republican Party base.

 More:

“Alabama Supreme Court Throws Tantrum, Defies Federal Judge, Halts Gay Marriages,” Mark Joseph Stern, Slate

Related:

“I Was Alabama’s Top Judge. I’m Ashamed by What I Had to Do to Get There.” Sue Bell Cobb, Politico Magazine

“John Oliver digs into the ‘horrifying spectacle’ of judicial elections,” Sarah Gray, Salon

UPDATE: 

“Alabama GOP proposes bill to let judges opt out of marrying gay couples — and Jews and Muslims too!” Jenny Kutner, Salon

“Ala. Bill Would Let Judges Opt Out Of Performing Gay Marriages,” Caitlin MacNeal, TPM Livewire

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Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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Alabama Probate Judges Get Remedial Legal Education

On January 23rd Federal District Judge Callie Granade struck down two Alabama state laws banning same-sex marriage. On February 8th Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered state probate judges to ignore the Federal court ruling. On February 9th the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay the District Court’s decision. On February 12th Judge Granade ordered the Mobile County Probate Judge to issue licenses to same-sex couples, and he complied. But while judges in 23 Alabama counties were issuing licenses to all couples, those in 18 counties were only licencing straight couples and 26 counties weren’t issuing any licenses at all. What gives?