Marriage licenses issued Friday in Rowan County were altered to remove Kim Davis' name

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Lexington Herald-Leader

Local News > Politics and Government
By Bill Estep
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@billestep1
September 8, 2015 Updated 8 minutes ago

The marriage licenses obtained by three couples in Rowan County last week were altered to remove the name of jailed county clerk Kim Davis, according to a court document. ... The information was in a status report that attorneys for couples filed Tuesday at the direction of U.S. District Judge David Bunning.
....

Copies of licenses issues last week and filed in the court record show that where Davis' name ordinarily would be, the words "Rowan County" were used instead. ... So instead of the licenses saying they were issued on a certain date "in the office of Kim Davis, Rowan County County Clerk," which would be standard, examples included in the court file say they were issued "in the office of Rowan County, Rowan County County Clerk."
....

An attorney for Davis said in a news conference Friday afternoon that Davis thinks the licenses that her office issued Friday are void. ... "They are not being issued under the authority of the Rowan County clerk's office. They are not worth the paper that they are written on," attorney Mat Staver said Friday after meeting with Davis in the Carter County jail in Grayson.

Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins had previously dismissed that argument, saying deputy clerks can issue valid marriage licenses without their boss's approval.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/09/08/4025586_marriage-licenses-issued-friday.html

[randys1]

1. So she wont get paid, I hope. Surely since she wont do her job or even be the official

involved anymore, she at a minimum must NOT be paid. Dammit

[msongs]

2. she won. still gets the pay and bennies with none of the responsibility nt

[Orsino]

34. She lost.

It seems clear that she had to promise to stop the obstruction in order to get out of jail, and that any further tantrums could land her back behind bars.

We don't get the satisfaction of seeing her humbled, but she has had to back down, and marriages are going ahead without her filthy fingerprints on the licenses.

[JohnnyRingo]

38. Good point.

Even more important, this defuses the so called "religious persecution" that she's leveraging to her advantage.

I don't think she can be a martyr when she's walking free, so it should be business as usual at the county clerk's office. I'm absolutely certain she won't be happy with that.

[gcomeau]

6. As far as I know she's still IN jail? -eom

[gcomeau]

8. Ah, missed that...

...in that case if she's still actively trying to deny valid licences to people hell yes, toss her right back in the cell until she falls in line.

[w0nderer]

16. this time can it be high sec not county slam? tired of whitecollars getting county n/t

[C Moon]

4. She's evil.

[LynneSin]

22. She's not evil. She's just a clueless pawn

Who is tickled pink for her 15 minutes of fame but in the end doesn't realize what tool she has become.

She is nothing more than a pawn.

[Raster]

27. Correct. Mat Staver and Liberty Council have been pulling the strings.

She's NOT a glorious soldier for Christ. She's just an unsuspecting mercenary for Staver, Liberty Council and their anti-gay and lesbian pogrom.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7150024

[underpants]

5. Let's see how she handles it

Once again it's all about Kim(eh)!!!

[truebluegreen]

9. Why the eff do our government officials

feel the need to ACCOMMODATE people like Kim Davis and Cliven Bundy?

Talk about the need to do their effing jobs....

[kay1864]

11. Because, Kentucky.

Ky legislature isn't about to remove her from office. She'll be paid to do nothing as long as they (and the voters of Rowan County) approve of her beliefs and actions.

[christx30]

14. Because their side has the numbers

and armed people willing/eager to shoot government officials to prevent enforcement of laws they think are bad. They see everything as 1775, and all government agents as evil.

[truebluegreen]

17. "...has the numbers": I would dispute that

or they would win more national elections. They certainly have the gunz and the crazy though.

[christx30]

32. They have more people willing to kill

to protect their so-called "rights". I mean, Bundy still has his cows after over a year. He's not in prison. And he still hasn't paid the court.

[truebluegreen]

35. They need to be called out as the lawbreakers they are, at the very least.

The feds should go to court against Bundy, get a judgment (they probably already have one), freeze assets, whatever. Confrontations involving firearms are like wrestling a pig: both sides get dirty but the pig likes it.

My point is, accommodating these people is a short road to anarchy.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

10. "They are not worth the paper that they are written on"

s e l f - d e l e t e

[nichomachus]

36. If the assistant clerks purposely altered official documents to make them invalid

They are in deep shit. These are legal documents. You can't do that.

[jmowreader]

39. The county attorney says the deputies are in the right

Remember when she was locked away and was claiming "all she wanted" was for her name not to appear on the marriage licenses? Well, then the court system in Rowan County accommodates her, gives her exactly what she wanted..."oh no, without my name those licenses aren't valid." So she's still defying the court order to issue licenses. And she needs to go back to prison.

[Agnosticsherbet]

12. I suspect she will be back in court and,hopefull, cooling her ass in jail very soon.

[SoapBox]

13. You would think that she owns the office and the authority...

At least that's the way she and that asshole lawyer act.

Screw that.

[Warpy]

15. Huckabee and Cruz both showed up today, pitching hissy fits

over that "good Christian lady" being taken away from her children over wanting to express her religious beliefs, somebody get the cross!

The second she tells anyone in that office to stop issuing licenses to same sex couples, she'll be back in the can to think it over again until more grandstanding Republican hypocrites come to create another circus.

[FSogol]

19. Two guys that couldn't pass a US Government High School Final Exam

if their life depended on it.



What business do they have running for political office?



What's the over/under on her returning to jail after rushing to office to stop the licenses? Two days?

[Warpy]

26. They're doing it for JEEbus

and I imagine the money laundering through the super PAC sweetens that pot considerably.

If there is one thing Jebus never has enough of, it's money.

[progressoid]

30. Did they show up in a waaambulance?

[sanatanadharma]

18. Kim Davis is not the Office of the Clerk of Rowan County

Kim Davis is not the Office of the Clerk of Rowan County.
She temporarily occupies the role of the clerk. The powers and responsibilities and authority of the office do not belong to her. They pre-existed her election and continue after her tenure. Printing her name on a form, as the occupier of the role, adds nothing to the county clerk powers, nor does its absence remove any authority of the office.

Clear thinkers need to see and keep clear the differences between levels of reality; church and state for example.
She stopped issuing marriage licenses for straight marriages, surely a long established activity.
How does she justify refusal to follow a judge's order to issue marriage licenses (to acceptable couples)?
She has and claims no faith objection to issuing straight marriage licenses. Her stopping is unjustified under laws of state and laws of God.

Kim Davis is not a clear thinker.
She is asking that the State of Kentucky pass a law for the benefit of ONE individual; a questionable procedure (oh, I know--capitalists).

And like all regressives, Kim Davis and followers claim an exclusive right to pick and choose those standard that are to apply to all, while broadly violating others of their own God's commands.

[crim son]

37. I appreciate your clear-thinking, at least.

Thank you for the excellent post.

[hamsterjill]

20. I'm unclear from reading this article as to WHO it was that altered the licenses.

Can someone enlighten me?

If it was done intentionally so that the licenses issued WOULD be deemed void, then I think the couples who obtained the licenses most definitely will have a case.

But this article does not state who altered them. The deputy clerk mentioned is Brian Mason, who one of the couples indicated had been pleasant to them when they'd tried to obtain the license previously.

Yes, I see where the county attorney indicates that deputies can issue valid (important word here) licenses without their boss's approval, but I still don't understand who altered the licenses to remove Davis' printed name.

[PJMcK]

29. Just an educated guess

Good question, hamsterjill. The article doesn't include a copy of one of the licenses so I'm going to make a guess that they are printed on a high-quality laser printer using special paper that already has the Rowan County letterhead, images and/or watermarks on it. It would be easy to edit the template changing the name of the authority issuing the license. As an example, many DMV documents such as license and vehicle titles are printed this way.

Your question raises a different thought, however. The Rowan County attorneys, who probably understand the law and the Constitution better than Ms. Davis' lawyers, most likely directed and wrote the language for the changes to the marriage licenses. As sanatanadharma wrote (see post #18), the authority to issue the marriage licenses resides in the Office of the County Clerk, not in the elected individual who temporarily holds the office.

[BlueIdaho]

21. Meanwhile...

Kim Davis earns $80,000 a year for refusing to do her job...

[OneCrazyDiamond]

23. Is it true she isn't issuing any marriage licenses?

I thought she was only denying gay marriages.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

24. The Rowan County clerk's office had not been isuing any marriage licenses. NT

Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis Ordered Released From Jail, OP

Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in June, the day after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her. U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered Davis to issue the licenses, and the Supreme Court upheld his ruling.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

28. She must think it is legal

as long as she denies everyone equally.

[stopbush]

25. Smart judge.

The judge knows exactly where this is going and how it will eventually end. He is laying the groundwork for her removal while giving her every option to do the job she swore an oath to do.

Stupidly, this woman thinks that she's some kind of martyr who will be able to live off that martyrdom for years. Guess again. She'll be out of her $80k-a-year gig, never hired again for any government job, probably not hired for any job anywhere that isn't at some fundy Xian business (and at no where close to $80k a year), and her being a martyr will be forgotten by the Xian RW by Xmas.

[PJMcK]

31. Agreed that the judge is pretty smart

I think you're right, stopbush. Judge Bunning has overseen this entire case in an intelligent, legal and even-handed manner. At each step of the proceedings, he's given Ms. Davis an opportunity to find a compromise. Unfortunately for her, her attorneys have a different agenda than just representing Ms. Davis and we've seen the early results of that strategy.

When the judge ordered her to jail for contempt of court, several colleagues and I wondered if he had an end-game in mind of if he was just taking advantage of the long weekend to show her what she's facing. One opinion has borne out: he would release her today to give her yet another chance. I, for one, can't wait to see what the next steps Ms. Davis will take. Since she's dead wrong on every position she's taken, I suspect that there's plenty of more drama ahead.

Another thought occurs to me. Except for Ms. Davis' advisors, all of the people involved in the case live in the community and probably many of them know one another; some may live nearby or their kids go to the same schools. For all that we know, and it's irrelevant, the judge may even go to the same church as Ms. Davis. It's a mark of Judge Bunning's ethics and professionalism that he's handled the case in the manner he has.

Meanwhile, time to prepare some popcorn.

[lobodons]

33. More people going to jail

If this is the case (altered licenses) not only is Kim Davis going back to jail, others in her office who altered the documents and or issues falsified documents will also be going to jail.