Kim Davis
14 pieces tagged “Kim Davis”, newest first.
House Hunters: GOP Shops for New Leader
If you thought the 2016 elections were heating up, you should see the House Speaker’s race! In the frenzy since John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) resignation, the back and forth over who will succeed him has seemed more like a daytime drama with the main characters constantly changing. This week, the saga over the most-watched seat on Capitol Hill took another twist now that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is seriously considering the job many are drafting him for.
Kim Davis and the Rule of Law
Most liberals and even some conservatives are arguing that Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis must either issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or quit her post. Where you stand on this issue too often comes down to a case of where you stand on the question of whether same-sex nuptials are now “the law of the land” because Justice Tony Kennedy and four of his black-robed cohorts say so.
ACLU Wants Kim Davis’ ‘Scalp to Hang on the Wall’
Federal prisoner Kim Davis walked into the Kentucky jail cell wearing an orange jumpsuit and holding a Bible. “When I went back into that holding cell I hit my knees and just prayed, just cried out for God to give me some peace and assurance that all was going to be well — and I prayed and I sang,” she told me in her first digital interview. It was September 3 — the day Mrs. Davis became the first Christian jailed as a result of the Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage. Federal Judge David Bunning ordered her jailed for contempt of court after she defied a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. He denied her request to accommodate her religious beliefs by simply removing her name from the marriage form.
Kim Davis Is Complicated
Kim Davis is the clerk of Rowan County, Ky. After Anthony Kennedy and four other justices of the United States Supreme Court decided that they know better than the more than 50 percent of Americans who either oppose gay marriage or think the states should have decided things, Davis decided to stop issuing marriage licenses in Rowan County. Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, now running for governor of Kentucky, had refused to represent Kentucky in federal court in the gay marriage case. He needed to consolidate the political left to his side. Defending Kentucky’s constitutional provision in support of real marriage would have cost him political support. So he sat on his hands.
Expect More Tyranny and Thus More Kim Davises
Why do so many who castigate Kim Davis for flouting the law routinely cheer on President Obama for actions far more lawless and consequential? Why are those demonizing the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk so indifferent to the Supreme Court’s rank abuse of power that created the atmosphere of conflict from which her actions arose? Who died and made the Supreme Court god? Well, the Supreme Court made itself god in 1803, with the case of Marbury v. Madison, in which it asserted its power of judicial review — the right to declare acts of the legislative and executive branches unconstitutional.
Two Kingdoms in Conflict Over Same-Sex Marriage
Let’s get something straight. America has never been a “Christian nation.” Those who believe otherwise have an obligation to say what part of our history was uniquely Christian. Was it when slavery was legal? How about when women were denied the vote? The Gilded Age? The Roaring ’20s? America is a nation in which Christians — and every other religious and nonreligious person — have the right to practice their beliefs in private and public free of government intrusion, except in some cases of life-threatening medical conditions in which the courts have occasionally intruded. It may make some evangelicals feel better to believe the country once reflected biblical principles, but despite generic quotations about “Divine Providence” that hark back to our founding, that’s difficult to prove.
Obama Breaks Law He Signed, Don’t Give Up, Christians & the Law
A county clerk in Kentucky spent the holiday weekend in jail for refusing to follow the law. (More on that below.) But President Obama is also refusing to follow a law that he signed. When the New York Times last year leaked the news that the Obama White House would not submit his nuclear deal with Iran to the Senate for ratification as a treaty, members of Congress were outraged. In a rare moment of bi-partisan agreement, Democrats and Republicans came together to demand that Congress have some say on the most important foreign policy decision of this administration.
Kim Davis Has No Right to Impose Her View of Marriage on Others
The Defiant Clerk’s Defenders Dangerously Blur the Distinction Between Private Action and State Action
Kentucky Judge Does With a Gavel What Bull Connor Did With Dogs and Fire Hoses
Pastor Rick Warren once told me the fight for religious liberty would become the civil rights issue of our generation. On Thursday Pastor Warren’s prophetic words were fulfilled at the hands of the United States Government. It happened in the Commonwealth of Kentucky where Judge David Bunning ordered U.S. Marshalls to arrest Kim Davis, the clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky. Mrs. Davis is a devout Christian who refused to issue gay marriage licenses. She claimed that doing so would violate her religious beliefs.
The Law Is Only Sacred When It Furthers a Liberal Value
Working for the government is not an inalienable right. So Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, was wrong to refuse same-sex couples marriage licenses in her office. If you’re unwilling to enforce the law, you shouldn’t be an officer of the state. After all, it’s not a clerk’s job to ascertain the constitutionality or practicality of a law. If it were, we’d have anarchy. There are hundreds of other vocations she is free to pursue if this one doesn’t suit her. So Davis’ stand isn’t about religious freedom. Not really. Signing off on state documents is not tantamount to being forced, as bakers and photographers have been, to participate in a wedding ceremony. There are certainly bigots out there intent on coercing Christian businesses to choose between their faith and their livelihood; this isn’t one of those instances. If you want to participate in civil obedience, don’t work for the state.
Can a Christian Be a County Clerk in America?
Can a Christian be a county clerk in the United States? This is a question it now appears may ultimately be decided by five Supreme Court justices. With it, too, will ride such questions as: Can a Christian be a doctor? A nurse? A public-school teacher? In June, when five justices declared that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment creates a right to “same-sex marriage,” Justice Clarence Thomas issued a warning.