Kentucky court clerk jailed until agreeing to do her job or quit it

Careful, she might like to claim that one.

1 Like

So happy for her. Now she’s been martyred ,she can quit and ghostwrite herself to a million bucks and call it a day and the rest of American can move on.

Win win win, let’s get the ball rolling.

2 Likes

17 Likes

The possibility of her making serious bank from this annoys me so I propose that the well be poisoned.

We need to sew the seeds of doubt in the minds of those who would donate money to people like this, so we’ll need to stage exactly this kind of media circus, many times.

With one significant change.

We have clerks like this lady make these kinds of protest, claiming religious freedom or whatever and have them set up donation funds which significantly religiously-idiotic people can donate to and then have our clerk, once all the cash has rolled in, have a sudden, public conversion.

A message from God his’self, commanding the poor clerk to denounce their previous exclusionary behaviour and, of course, keep all of the donations and gift the money to progressive charities for the fair treatment of gay people.

Once we can make the fuckers doubt the motivations of those who they are sending money to, perhaps the donations will dry up?

/I can dream can’t I?

4 Likes

Damned if I know - it’s actually true for a lot of the country, even though this is a totally bureaucratic sort of position. What’s extra weird in this case, is that her mother did it for 40 years before her, she was a deputy clerk for 27 in her mother’s office and her son is now a deputy clerk in her office (so he’s clearly lined up for succession) - the position is obviously seen as a birthright by this family.

2 Likes

Yeah but… she became religious after she did all those things, so it’s totally cool!

Christians would devolve into Romans (not Roman Catholic but Roman Roman, like the salad topping) and he would be re-crucified in about five minutes. There is no way today’s Christians would stand for his “turn the other cheek” and “love thy enemy” BS. It would be “hello brother”, rabble-rabble-rabble, the sound of wood clanking together, then some pounding followed by “what’s that wood for? Are we going to sing songs around a camp fir… oh, no, shoot, Father, don’t forgive them this time they know exactly what they’re doing” and before you know it there would be drive by crucifixions of all the long hair hippies in the Bible belt “just in case”.

1 Like

Judge Bunning was being very careful here. Although it would be satisfying to put in really big fines and drive them to charities this woman wouldn’t like, first, that only would open the door to an appeal on the order – no Judge wants that – and secondly, I don’t think Judge Bunning (his father was a US Senator, and a pretty right-wing one at that) is entirely unsympathetic to the woman’s religious position on the topic but – since he swore an oath himself and as he rightly said, “Oaths Mean Things” he did what was necessary and no more.

Doing more than that would undermine his goal and his obligations as a Judge.

8 Likes

She’s the only one who can issue licenses unless she’s absent*. (Wouldn’t be fair to keep people from getting married because the clerk’s on vacation, or out sick.) In jail for contempt ought to count. Sitting in her office sulking probably doesn’t.

She’s also forbidden the people who work for her from issuing any licenses, and she could fire them just in case they had issued them while she’s sulking in her office. Probably can’t do so while she’s sulking in jail.

That’s one of the things that makes this case different from, say, a judge who won’t perform marriage ceremonies for people she doesn’t like - that’s still not doing her job, but the couple can get somebody else to officiate, or marry each other without an officiant the way Quakers do, but by refusing to issue a license, when she’s the one you have to get it from, she’s establishing her religion as the official religious policy of her county.

6 Likes

Sort of like God did after 9/11?

I call dibs on making her facial hair fabulous!!

3 Likes

Was wishful thinking/musing not a serious “I expect this to happen”. Maybe I should have put a winky emoticon.

I don’t know what you mean. This movie looks great!

1 Like

A court has issued a harsh (if eminently Republican) response to the problem

So given all the supposed roadblocks (she’s elected apparently and can’t be fired), what would be the non eminently Republican response? Honestly curious

1 Like

Incorrect. Paul comments negatively lesbian relationships in his letter to the Romans, but it’s not a commandment, it’s part of a complaint about how the world is generally going to the dogs.

1 Like

Tennessee is getting jealous:
Scalia-loving Tennessee judge: Straight couples can’t divorce if same-sex couples can marry

“With the U.S. Supreme Court having defined what must be recognized as a marriage, it would appear that Tennessee’s judiciary must now await the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court as to what is not a marriage, or better stated, when a marriage is no longer a marriage,” Atherton wrote in his decision.
3 Likes

It’s not a matter of Federal laws, it’s Federal court decisions. Can’t duck those unless they want to disconnect from the Federal government, and there was a lot of unpleasantness the last time some states tried that.

5 Likes

The War of Evangelical Aggression

5 Likes

Marriage equality is now a Constitutional right. Like @billstewart said, those aren’t the kind of things that states are allowed to “opt out” of.

6 Likes

Ah, yes, This wonderful, god-fearing woman, who has broken 3 marriage vows so far. When she divorced the first time, to marry husband #2, she was already pregnant by the man who become husband #3, who she also divorced to marry husband #4.

There’s some good christian values for ya’.

3 Likes