Kim Davis Files Emergency Motion: Issuing Licenses To Gays Would ‘Irreparably’ Burden Her Conscience

It’s taken a whole week but attorneys for Kentucky clerk Kim Davis have finally filed an “emergency” motion with the 6th Circuit. Now, let’s take a look at the ridiculous arguments they’re making.

One week ago Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ruled Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis had to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Davis has refused and her office has turned away several same-sex and different-sex couples.

Yesterday, Judge Bunning put an expiration date on a temporary hold he placed on his ruling, allowing Davis time to file an appeal with the 6th Circuit. And finally, yesterday, after waiting a week while she refused to issue marriage licenses, Davis’ attorneys at Liberty Counsel filed an emergency motion.

That motion asks the 6th Circuit to stay Judge Bunning’s ruling ordering her to issue marriage licenses to all couples, regardless of gender.

And it’s is a doozy.

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that finds no intrinsic difference in marriages between same-sex and different-sex couples, Liberty Counsel actually insists on continuing to use scare quotes around the word “marriage” when it is preceded by the words “same-sex.” It’s a desperate and juvenile act of defiance.

In the motion (below) Liberty Counsel claims a marriage license issued to a same-sex couple by or under Davis’ name would “substantially and irreparably” burden Davis’ “conscience and deeply-held, sincere religious beliefs which dictate to Davis that such unions are not and cannot be ‘marriage.'”

That, of course is the perfect argument – for Davis to honorably resign. 

Calling it a “searing act” that “would forever echo in her conscience,” Liberty Counsel also claims that if Davis is forced to sign her name to a marriage license of a same-sex couple, “there is no absolution or correction that any earthly court can provide to rectify it.”

Again, that, of course is the perfect argument – for Davis to honorably resign.  

Liberty Counsel, which appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of anti-gay hate groups, also takes a swipe at same-sex marriage, suggesting that that Davis’ rights are superior to, and come before, the rights of gay people. 

“Davis’ individual liberties are enumerated” in the state and federal constitutions, Liberty Counsel states, while suggesting the right to marriage for same-sex couples is not found directly in the U.S. Constitution but “emanates” from it.

And Liberty Counsel continues, stating that Davis’ rights “are natural liberties tied to religious beliefs that are measured in millennia (not weeks.)” 

In short, Liberty Counsel makes clear Davis has no intention or desire to be or act as a public servant.

And that, of course is the perfect argument – for Davis to honorably resign. 

 

Image: protest against Kim Davis. Photo by Mike Wynn via Twitter