The Patriot Post® · Justice Kennedy Supports Davis' Refusal to Issue Marriage Licenses

Well, not quite, but he did in principle.

On August 9th, 2003, speaking to a meeting of the American Bar Association, Justice Kennedy lashed out at mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders, saying he could “accept neither the necessity nor the wisdom of federal mandatory minimum sentences. In too many cases, mandatory minimum sentences are unwise and unjust.” In expressing his disdain, he openly advocated for judges refusing to rule based on the explicit statutory requirements, encouraging them to violate the law in issuing more lenient sentences.

Speaking before the House Appropriations Committee, Kennedy went on to praise such contempt for the law, stating, “I do think federal judges who depart downward [issue more lenient sentences for drug offenders, in violation of the mandatory sentencing requirements] are courageous … [and judges should not] follow, blindly, these unjust guidelines.”

Yet Kennedy joined his SCOTUS colleagues in denying a hearing for Rowan County (KY) Clerk of Court Kim Davis, who appealed for an exemption to the Court’s opinion legalizing same-sex marriage across the country in the Obergfell case. With that denial, Davis was declared in contempt of court for her continued refusal to issue licenses, and went to jail for it.

So where is Kennedy now? Why is he not coming to her defense?

In finding a constitutional right to same-sex “marriage,” Kennedy and his fellow black-robed oligarchs ignored hundreds of years of culture and tradition in America, hundreds of years of statutory laws, the Supreme Court’s prior rulings, and even his OWN rationale as expressed in the 2013 Windsor case, where Kennedy argued that the U.S. Constitution does not address the issue of marriage, and therefore it is properly the purview of the states to determine the parameters of marriage. Just two years later, Kennedy declared that homosexuals have a “right” to same-sex “marriage” (which he discovered in the Dignity Clause of the Constitution), and that states had no power to deny them that right).

So which of Kennedy’s interpretations was accurate? The federalist argument, or the “dignity” argument? Despicably, Kennedy asserted that opposition to same-sex marriage was rooted in homophobic “animus,” which apparently means that the entirety of humanity prior to about ten years ago were hate-filled, homophobic bigots.

It seems to be this attribution of bigotry that drives leftists to ignore the Constitution, ignore centuries of tradition, and gleefully destroy the ACTUAL constitutional rights of American citizens who still hold to both a strict interpretation of the Constitution, and the eons old definition of marriage. Leftists all across America demanded that Kim Davis be fired, jailed, or both, for her refusal to issue the licenses, and celebrated when it happened.

It seems, however, that leftists are highly selective when it comes to their demands for people to be jailed for violating the law.

For example, following the BP oil spill in the Gulf a while back, Obama was held in contempt of court for continuing to deny drilling permits after a federal court ruled he could no longer maintain a moratorium. No leftist Democrats called for Obama to be jailed then.

Nor have leftists been calling for the jailing of Hillary Clinton for maintaining her own server while Secretary of State, which we now know was used to send and receive highly sensitive government information, including satellite data tracking North Korea’s movement of nuclear assets.

There have been no demands for the imprisonment of former Attorney General Eric Holder for his role in facilitating the sale of assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels, which resulted in the deaths of two American law enforcement officers and hundreds of Mexican citizens, or for former IRS official Lois Lerner to be jailed for unlawfully denying 501(c)(4) status to conservative non-profit political organizations.

Nor have there been calls for the mayors of “sanctuary” cities to be jailed for willfully refusing to abide by U.S. immigration laws, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of U.S. citizens by illegal alien felons, not to mention the thousands and thousands of rapes, burglaries, assaults, and other crimes committed by those who should have been deported years ago. For that matter, shouldn’t Obama be jailed for repeatedly and defiantly refusing to enforce our immigration laws?

Furthermore, Obama had a constitutional obligation to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which was passed by overwhelming majorities in Congress and signed by Democrat President Bill Clinton, but he refused to do so. He also unilaterally ended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regarding openly practicing homosexuals in the military, which was a violation of statutory law. He also unilaterally ended the work requirements in the welfare reform bill passed by Congressional Republicans in 1994, and signed by Bill Clinton. Should he go to jail for that?

What about Obama’s repeated violations of his OWN health care law, routinely ignoring statutory deadlines for implementation of various aspects of the law, creating special exemptions and waivers not allowed by law, etc. Will Barry get jail time for that? Obama has failed to comply with the Corker bill, requiring him to provide any and ALL documentation pertaining to the Iran nuclear deal. Jail time?

So Kim Davis is jailed, but these law-breakers remain free? And what law did Davis break? The Supreme Court issued an OPINION on same-sex marriage, but the LAWS on the books of three dozen states - including Kentucky, which voted 75% in favor of a constitutional amendment to do so - still declare marriage as a union of a man and a woman. Likewise, Congress has not passed a law authorizing same-sex marriage, and the Supreme Court has no power to pass laws.

Leftist Democrats are outraged by Davis’s determination, but none other than Martin Luther King, Jr., supposedly beloved by liberals, declared, “If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God’s will, it is your Christian duty to oppose it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God… We need to pledge ourselves anew to the cause of Christ. We must capture the spirit of the early church. Wherever the early Christians went, they made a triumphant witness for Christ. Whether on the village streets or in the city jails, they daringly proclaimed the good news of the gospel.”

Are liberal Democrats ready to declare MLK an intolerant homophobe, and would they throw him in jail again were he alive today?

The Supreme Court is charged with determining the constitutionality of laws passed by Congress, but they are not the final arbiter of what is constitutional, and they are certainly NOT the national oracles which get to establish moral standards. Lest we forget, it was Democrat-appointed Supreme Courts which gave us the execrable Dred Scott and Plessy decisions which declared blacks were property, and enshrined the doctrine of “separate but equal” in allowing segregation.

So until liberal Democrats start demanding prison time for their own violators of the law, and actually show respect for the Constitution, I don’t want to hear another word from them about Kim Davis. The hypocrisy of the Left is staggering.