The Kentucky clerk who is defying a
federal judge's ruling ordering her to issue marriage licenses to all
qualified couples has turned to the Supreme Court, asking Justice
Elena Kagan to place the ruling on hold as she pursues an appeal.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis is among
the handful of Kentucky clerks who are defying the Supreme Court's
June ruling striking down gay marriage bans in all 50 states.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on
Wednesday turned down Davis' request for a stay.
(Related: Kentucky
clerk who won't issue marriage licenses to gay couples facing
misconduct charge.)
In her application for an emergency
stay, Davis' lawyers argue that her “conscience forbids her from
approving a SSM [same-sex marriage] license – because the
prescribed form mandates that she authorize the proposed union and
issue a license bearing her own name and imprimatur.”
“[Davis] holds an undisputed
sincerely-held religious belief that marriage is a union between a
man and a woman, only. Thus, in her belief, SSM is not, in fact,
marriage.”
“[A] person who objects to SSM based
upon religious beliefs … should not be forced to issue by her
authorization and under her name a license to a same-sex couple 'to
join together in the state of matrimony.' That searing act of
personal validation would forever, and irreversibly, echo in her
conscience – and, if it happened, there is no absolution or
correction that any earthly court can provide to rectify it,” the
lawyers continued.
Davis argues that gay couples could
receive a marriage license from a nearby county. Plaintiffs counter
that they have a right to get a marriage license in the county where
they live, work and pay taxes.