Kim Davis Employees Will Defy Her, Issue Marriage Licenses

With Kim Davis’ recent release from prison on charges of contempt, there has been much speculation as to whether she will continue to refuse issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. Davis’ lawyers say she won’t, Judge Bunning says she has to, and Davis herself isn’t saying either way.

But Brian Mason, one of Kim Davis’ deputy clerks, has told the media that he will issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples even if Davis orders him not to. In comments reported by the Denver Post, Mason said that if Davis attempted to block him from issuing licenses, he would simply cite the Federal Court order and tell her that he was unable to obey her. Brian Mason was the first clerk to issue gay marriage licenses from the Rowan County office, and made it abundantly clear that he did not agree with Davis’ stance. He reportedly hung a sign describing himself as “the official marriage license deputy.” He has also apologized to some of the couples for refusing to issue licenses during the period when Davis was preventing him from doing so.

Liberty Counsel, the law firm representing Davis, have issued several statements that appear to confirm the deeply-Christian clerk’s unchanged position. In a statement to CNN, one of Davis’ lawyers, Mat Staver, was less than clear in response to a question about whether Kim Davis would issue marriage licenses.

“She loves God, she loves people, she loves her work and she will not betray any of those three. She’ll do her job good. She’ll serve the people… and she’ll also be loyal to God, and she’s not going to violate her conscience.”

Many media outlets have interpreted this as a promise that Davis will continue to defy the court, speculating as to how soon she will end up back in jail. Davis herself issued a statement saying that she would spend the next few days reading letters sent to her while she was imprisoned before returning to work on Monday.

After losing her battle for religious exemption in multiple courts and failing to persuade the Kentucky Legislature to hold a special session to grant her one, Davis appears to have moderated her demands somewhat. She now wishes only to have her name removed from licenses issued to same sex couples. Liberty Counsel, however, is questioning the validity of any licenses that do not have Davis’ signature, saying they are “not worth the paper they are written on.” This would seem to indicate what many commentators already suspect — that Kim Davis has become in some ways a victim of conservatives wishing to use her situation to further their own agenda.

In Judge Bunning’s latest ruling, Kim Davis has been warned that she will once again be found in contempt if she interferes with the issue of licenses by her clerks in any way. Davis was released as the judge found that her office had satisfied his previous order by issuing licenses in her absence. Davis, an elected official, cannot easily be removed from her position and has consistently refused to resign. Kim Davis earns $80,000 a year in her position as County Clerk and is potentially able to claim payments from the period in which she was in prison.

[Picture via Getty Images]