Jailed Kentucky clerk's lawyer says new same-sex marriage licences are invalid
Deputy issued documents Friday as Kim Davis remains in custody
A jailed Kentucky clerk insists the marriage licences issued Friday to same-sex couples by her office are void because she didn't authorize them, her attorney said.
Attorney Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel said the licences are "not worth the paper they are written on" and promised to appeal the contempt order that sent Kim Davis to jail on Thursday.
Staver met with Davis in jail on Friday and said she is in very good spirits. He didn't know how long she will be in custody, but he said she has no intention of resigning.
"She's not going to sacrifice her conscience, so she's doing what Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about in his Letter from the Birmingham Jail, which is to pay the consequences for her decision," Staver said.
Meanwhile, the lawyer said he's preparing to appeal U.S. District Judge David Bunning's contempt finding as one of several legal challenges on Davis' behalf.
'Civil rights are civil rights'
At least three gay couples received marriage licences Friday in Rowan County, Ky., embracing and celebrating when one of Davis' deputies handed them out.
William Smith Jr. and James Yates, a couple for nearly a decade, were the first to receive a licence. Deputy clerk Brian Mason issued the document, congratulating the couple and shaking their hands as he smiled. After they paid the $47 licence fee, Yates rushed across the steps of the courthouse to hug his mom as both cried.
"This means at least for this area that civil rights are civil rights and they are not subject to belief," said Yates, who had been denied a licence five times previously.
A crowd of supporters cheered as the couple left, while a street preacher rained down words of condemnation. Yates and Smith said they are trying to choose between two wedding dates and plan a small ceremony at the home of Yates' parents.
The licences were issued only after five of Kim Davis' deputy clerks agreed to hand them out, the lone holdout from the office being her son, Nathan Davis. Her office was dark Friday morning, with a sheriff's deputy standing guard in front of it.
The marriage licences in the county usually have Davis' signature on them, but the ones handed out Friday did not have any signature. The county attorney and lawyers for the gay couples said they are legal and valid despite the lack of a signature.
Bunning was asked during Thursday's hearing about the licences if Davis refused to authorize them, and the judge said it was up to the gay couples to take that chance.
'Now we can breathe'
A second couple, Timothy and Michael Long, were issued a license about an hour after Yates and Smith. When the couple got inside the office, a man harassed them and said, "More sodomites getting married?" The Longs did not respond, and a worker told the man to leave.
A third couple, April Miller and Karen Roberts, arrived around midday.
"Now we can breathe. I'm still ecstatic and happy. I just can't wait to get married now," Roberts said.
On Thursday, Bunning had offered to release Davis if she promised not to interfere with her employees issuing licences, but she refused, citing her Christian beliefs.
'Good person'
Speaking to reporters Friday morning, Davis' husband, Joe Davis, held a sign saying "Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah" and said his wife was in good spirits after her first night in jail.
When asked if she would resign, he said, "Oh, God no. She's not going to resign at all. It's a matter of telling Bunning he ain't the boss."
God's moral law conflicts with my job duties.- County clerk Kim Davis
Joe Davis said the couple still supports Kim Davis' employees, whom he called "good people" and "good workers." He said he ate with the deputy clerks on Thursday at an Applebee's restaurant and told them "I loved them and I was proud of them."
Davis' son supported his mother and was warned by the judge Thursday not to interfere with his fellow employees. The judge said he did not want "any shenanigans," like the staff closing the office for computer upgrades as they did briefly last week.
"That would show a level of disrespect for the court's order," Bunning said. He added: "I'm hoping that cooler heads will prevail."
The judge indicated Kim Davis would remain in jail for at least a week, saying he would revisit his decision after the deputy clerks have had time to comply with his order.
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said he would visit Davis in jail next week and planned a rally to support her.
Davis said she hopes the Legislature will change Kentucky laws to find some way for her to keep her job while following her conscience. But Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear again refused to call a special session of the legislature on Thursday. State lawmakers will not meet until January.
Davis, an Apostolic Christian, wept during her testimony in federal court Thursday, telling the judge she was "always a good person" but that she gave her heart to the Lord in 2011 and "promised to love Him with all my heart, mind and soul because I wanted to make heaven my home."
"God's moral law conflicts with my job duties," Davis told the judge before she was taken away by a U.S. marshal. "You can't be separated from something that's in your heart and in your soul."