Kentucky clerk Kim Davis has just asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in her case so she can continue to refuse to issue marriage licenses and her attorneys are using rather hostile language to try to make their case.
Rowan County clerk Kim Davis is making a last-ditch effort to avoid issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples by taking her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Yesterday, her attorneys at Liberty Counsel, a Florida anti-gay hate group headed by Mat Staver, announced they would ask SCOTUS to intervene, allowing her to continue to refuse to issue licenses.Â
Today, they made good on that claim, and did so by using what some might call hostile and disrespectful language with Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th District, and thus is responsible for cases coming from Kentucky.
Davis seeks “asylum for her conscience, from this Court,” her emergency application reads. “Davis, a devout Christian, has faithfully and devotedly served the public in the Rowan County clerk’s office for nearly thirty years. She is one of 120 Kentucky County Clerks, and oversees one of approximately 137 marriage licensing locations spread throughout Kentucky. No marriage license can be issued from her office without her authorization and without her personally affixing thereto her name and endorsement. She has never once raised a religious conscience objection to performing a function in the county clerk’s office, until now,” it continues, clearly indicating that she has never refused applicants for other Christian biblical sins, just this particular one.
And in a stunning shot at the Supreme Court, Davis’ application also claims the Court’s decision in Obergefell, finding same-sex couples indeed have a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, “demands that she either fall in line (her conscience be damned) or leave office (her livelihood and job for three-decades in the clerk’s office be damned).”
(Bolding ours.)
Stunning language.
And it continues, claiming if her “religious objection cannot be accommodated…then elected officials have no real religious freedom when they take public office.”
Of course, Davis could merely reign gracefully from her office, but that’s actually what’s at stake. Davis sees her county clerk job as the family business, her mother having held that very same office for 27 years before her, and her son now is her deputy clerk.
It’s highly unlikely the Supreme Court will grant her request, since they have already ruled on the issue of same-sex marriage, but the Court has been known to grant extreme requests as an exercise in an abundance of wishing to appear fair and acting with respect, regardless of outcomes.
“If Kagan is ‘disinclined’ from granting those requests, however, Davis asks for the matter to be referred to the full Supreme Court,” Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed, who first reported the filing, reports.
Justice Kagan can grant the request for an emergency stay, refuse the request, send it to the full court, or simply ignore it.
Stay tuned.
Â
RELATED:
Breaking: 6th Circuit Slaps Down Kim Davis’ Request For Stay – Must Issue Licenses Monday
Kim Davis Files Emergency Motion: Issuing Licenses To Gays Would ‘Irreparably’ Burden Her Conscience
Kentucky Clerk: ‘I’m Going To Fight And Die For’ My Right To Not Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses
Â
Image by Elvert Barnes via Flickr and a CC license