Judge, clerk in marriage case dealt with nepotism charges

[niyad]

Judge, clerk in marriage case dealt with nepotism charges

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kim Davis and the judge that will decide her fate have at least one thing in common: They both had to deal with questions of nepotism when they got their jobs.



Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, right, talks with David Moore following her office's refusal to issue marriage licenses at the Rowan County Courthouse in Morehead, Ky., Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015. Although her appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied, Davis still refuses to issue marriage licenses.


Davis is the Rowan County Clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs, in defiance of multiple court orders. U.S. District Judge David Bunning is the man who on Thursday will determine whether to fine her or throw her in jail for refusing to obey his order.

Davis' mother, Jean Bailey, was clerk for 36 years before retiring last year. Davis worked for her mother for 27 years before getting elected to replace her. Once elected, Davis hired her son to work for her.

Bunning is the son of Jim Bunning, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies who served two terms as Kentucky's junior U.S. Senator. Former Republican President George W. Bush nominated David Bunning for a lifetime position as a federal judge in 2001 when he was just 35 years old, halfway through his dad's first term in the Senate.

The American Bar Association said David Bunning was not qualified to be a judge because he did not have enough experience. At the time, Bunning had 10 years of experience as a lawyer, all as an assistant U.S. attorney in Kentucky. The American Bar Association recommends federal judges have at least 12 years of experience. An attorney investigating Bunning at the time said his writings "read very much like the work of a young associate."

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http://www.mail.com/news/us/3792082-judge-clerk-marriage-case-dealt-with-nepotism-charges.html#.23140-stage-hero1-1

[closeupready]

1. I was reading that voters have been taken aback at her fundamentalist interpretation

of how she's supposed to do her job, in light of her campaign. Let me see if I can find that story.

Here it is:

The job of Rowan County clerk is not one you take seeking celebrity. It mostly involves shuffling paper: maintaining voter registration rolls, overseeing elections, issuing license plates, filing reports on the goings-on in the small northeastern Kentucky county of roughly 23,000. The elections for the position are uneventful and remarkably civil — the local Morehead News published just one story about the most recent campaign, remarking on how unusual it was for the job to be contested.

Kim Davis, 49, would have known that when she was narrowly voted into office last November. Her mother had been county clerk for nearly 40 years before her, and for 26 of them Davis had worked under her as deputy. She wasn’t looking to shake things up, she told the Morehead News at the time. She just wanted to do a good job.

“My words can never express the appreciation,” she said of the constituents who voted for her, “but I promise to each and every one that I will be the very best working clerk that I can be and will be a good steward of their tax dollars and follow the statutes of this office to the letter.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/02/meet-kim-davis-the-ky-clerk-who-defying-the-supreme-court-refuses-to-issue-gay-marriage-licenses/

[niyad]

2. thank you for this!

[closeupready]

3. ...

YVW!

[NV Whino]

4. Davis was elected. The judge was not.

Sure, mommy held the position before her, but she was voted in by the electorate.

[niyad]

5. and she was mommy's deputy for 26 of those years.