Two months after same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in a landmark supreme court decision meant to resolve the issue once and for all, lower court rulings and legal threats around the country are slapping down one attempt after another to resist the decision.
An Ohio judicial conduct board said that probate judges can’t refuse to marry same-sex couples for personal reasons earlier this week. In Alabama, where the state judicial system mounted the strongest opposition to same-sex marriage in the US, probate judges have had to stop issuing marriage licenses to all couples to show their opposition to same-sex marriage.
Private businesses like bakeries have had little success in their fight to not participate in same-sex marriages in Colorado. And in Texas, attorney general Ken Paxton was held in contempt of court over his refusal to enforce the same-sex marriage rule.
Paxton has since relented, as have many other officials across the US attempted to stall implementation of the law.
But some government employees are still attempting to block such marriages.
Among them is Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who has continued to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses, in spite of a federal judge’s order on Wednesday to follow the supreme court ruling.
Her office in Rowan County turned away same-sex couples on Thursday, with Davis citing her religious objections to such marriages. Judge David Bunning said that while she is entitled to her beliefs, it does not excuse her from performing a “purely legal” task. And Governor Steven Beshear ordered her to obey the ruling or resign.
Liberty Counsel, a Christian nonprofit legal group that opposes same-sex marriage, is representing Davis and has filed a notice of appeal. Disputing the constitution, federal government and state government is a hefty task, but Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver said it is a battle worth waging.
“Whether it’s difficult or not, the point is that she does not lose her first amendment rights,” Staver said.
He believes the supreme court’s ruling is “fundamentally weak”, though it determined in a 5-4 decision that same-sex marriage is a constitutionally protected right. Staver does not think Davis should have to adhere to the ruling because it violates her religious beliefs and was not part of the duties she was told she would have to fulfill when she was voted in as county clerk. “She didn’t sign up for this,” Staver said.
Staver said that Davis’s case is just the beginning. “The litigation is going to explode,” he said.
Bob Trent, a spokesman for Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative nonprofit that works on these types of religious freedom cases, said the group has not yet been approached by people like Davis, a government employee attempting to violate US law. “I don’t think it’s a strategic decision, it’s just the way things have fallen out,” Trent said.
He said that he could not determine the constitutionality of the Davis case without more details, but that ADF would represent people who can prove that same-sex marriage is violating their first amendment rights.
