Kim Davis Files Opening Brief With 6th Circuit

On Monday, Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis filed a 126-page opening brief (full text) in her appeal of the federal district court's various rulings against her that require her office to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite her religious objections to doing so.  As summarized in the Liberty Counsel press release announcing the filing, the appeal asks the 6th Circuit to reverse the following district court rulings: (1) Preliminary injunction against Davis on August 12, 2015; (2) District court’s denying a preliminary injunction against the State Defendants on August 12, 2015; (3) Expanded injunction against Davis on September 3, 2015; and (4) Contempt order against Davis on September 3, 2015. (See prior related posting.) AP reports on developments.

Report Analyzes Political Affiliation and Public Policy Views of Various U.S. Religious Groups

The Pew Research Center yesterday released a new 265-page report (full text) with an appropriately long title: U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious-- Modest Drop in Overall Rates of Belief and Practice, but Religiously Affiliated Americans Are as Observant as Before.  The Report analyzes findings from Pew's 2014 Religious Landscape Study. Chapter 4 of the Report analyzes the views of various U.S. religious groups on a wide variety of social and political topics.  These include political party affiliation, the role of the government, government aid to the poor, environmental regulation, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion, women in the workforce, childbearing out of wedlock, immigration and evolution.

Among the interesting findings is that the religiously unaffiliated (the "nones") is now the largest single religious group among those who self-identify as Democrats or as Democratic-leaning.  28% of Democrats are unaffiliated; while only 14% of Republicans are unaffiliated. The largest religious group among Republicans is Evangelical Protestants. They comprise 38% of Republicans, but only 16% of Democrats.

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

From SSRN:

• Jean L. Cohen, Freedom of Religion, Inc.: Whose Sovereignty?, (October 19, 2015).
• Jean L. Cohen, Pluralism, Group Rights, and Corporate Religion: Reply to Critics, (Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy 2015 (44) 3).
• Carlos A. Ball, Sexuality, Third-Party Harms, and the 'Live-and-Let-Live' Approach to Religious Exemptions, (Law, Culture, and the Humanities, Forthcoming).
• Jessica M. Silbey, Picturing Moral Arguments in a Fraught Legal Arena: Fetuses, Photographic Phantoms and Ultrasounds, (Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, Vol. 16, No. 3, 2015).
• Serena Mayeri, Marital Supremacy and the Constitution of the Nonmarital Family, (California Law Review, Vol. 103, p. 1277, 2015).

From SSRN (Non-U.S. Law)

• Melissa Crouch, Negotiating Legal Pluralism in Court: Fatwa and the Crime of Blasphemy in Indonesia, (Gary Bell and Michael Dowdle (eds) Festschrift in Honour of MB Hooker. Singapore: ISEAS, Forthcoming).
• Virgemarie A. Salazar, The Caliphate in the Era of Nation-States, (October 7, 2014).
• Andrew F. March, Islamic Philosophy (Falsafa) and Law, (The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law, eds., Anver M. Emon and Rumee Ahmed (Forthcoming)).
• Tim Cunningham, Monitoring Equality - Reflexive Regulation, Planning Systems, and the Role of Equality Law: Lessons from Northern Ireland, (The Equal Rights Review, Vol. Fourteen, (2015)).
• Ifran Hossain Mollah, Hindu Women's Right to Property at the Crossroads: The Tension between Human Rights and Cultural Relativism, (Journal of Society and Change Volume VIII, No. IV, 1915).
• Mauro Gatti, Blasphemy in European Law, ( In M. Díez Bosch and J. Sànchez Torrents (eds), On Blasphemy (Blanquerna, 2015), pp. 49-64).
• Catherine J. Iorns Magallanes, Maori Cultural Rights in Aotearoa New Zealand: Protecting the Cosmology that Protects the Environment, (21:2 Widener Law Review 273-327, 2015).

From SmartCILP:

• Eric Apar, The Perils of Doubt: Happiness, Epistemological Certainty, and Free Exercise Rights, 49 Valparaiso University Law Review 155-199 (2014).
• Angela C. Carmella, After Hobby Lobby: The "Religious For-Profit" and the Limits of the Autonomy Doctrine. 80 Missouri Law Review 381-449 (2015).
• Henry L. Chambers Jr., The Problems Inherent In Litigating Employer Free Exercise Rights, 86 University of Colorado Law Review 1141-1171 (2015).
• Donald H.J. Hermann, Defending the Public Good and Traditional Society: Non-Scriptural Religious Objections to Same-Sex Marriage, 49 Valparaiso University Law Review 1-37 (2014).
• Audra L. Savage, Turning the Other Cheek: The Persecution of the Christian Minority, 26 Florida Journal of International Law 373-397 (2014).

Recent Books:

• Stephen Monsma & Stanley Carlson-Thies, Free To Serve: Protecting the Religious Freedom of Faith Based Organizations, (Brazos Press, Oct. 2015).
• Jonathan Sacks, Not In God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence,  (Schocken, Oct. 2015), reviewed by Deseret News.

Anti-Gay Westboro Baptist Church Pickets Anti-Gay Marriage Kim Davis

In a move that puzzled some observers, four members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church yesterday picketed near the Rowan County, Kentucky courthouse.  Westboro, known for its virulent anti-gay rhetoric, was protesting Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has gained notice for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, a Westboro spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper said that Westboro objected to the fact that Davis is divorced and remarried.  Phelps-Roper said:

This woman wants to say that her sin isn’t as grievous as the same-sex marriage sin.  It’s all sin. It’s all awful. But her sin enabled that sin. When you look up, and all the Christians have given over the moral high ground, what voice do they have left?

She also argued that Kim Davis should nevertheless follow the law and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying: "God hates oath breakers just like he hates adultery and he hates same-sex marriage."

Recent Articles and Books of Interest

From SSRN:

• Travis Gasper, A Religious Right to Discriminate: Hobby Lobby and 'Religious Freedom' as a Threat to the LGBT Community, (Texas A&M Law Review, Forthcoming).
• Gila Stopler,The Challenge of Strong Religion in the Liberal State, (32(2) Boston University International Law Journal 411-448 (2014)).
• Joel Harrison & Patrick Parkinson, Freedom Beyond the Commons: Managing the Tension between Faith and Equality in a Multicultural Society, ((2014) 40 Monash University Law Review 413).
• Joel Harrison, Debating Rights and Same-Gender Relationships, (October 12, 2015).
• Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, Equality and Singapore's First Constitutional Challenges to the Criminalization of Male Homosexual Conduct, (Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, vol 16(1-2), pp 150-185 (2015)).
• Stephen F. Befort & Michael Vargas, Same-Sex Marriage and Title VII, (Santa Clara Law Review, Vol. 56, 2015).
• Virgemarie A. Salazar, Islamic Perspectives on Democracy, (December 3, 2014).
• Jennifer Ann Urban, Islamic Financing - A Successful Takeoff or a Crash Landing? Whether or Not Islamic Financing Should Be Used to Finance and Lease Aircraft, (2015).
• Virgemarie A. Salazar, Theocracy in Iran: From an Ideology to an Islamic Republic, (February 1, 2014).

From SmartCILP:

• Isabelle R. Gunning, Lawyers of All Faiths: Constructing Professional Identity and Finding Common Ground, [Abstract], 39 Journal of the Legal Profession 231-272 (2015).
• Sr. Helen PreJean, Letter To a Law Student, Dear Young Person, 8 DePaul Journal for Social Justice 151-160 (2015).

Recent Books:

• John  Witte, Jr., The Western Case for Monogamy Over Polygamy, (Cambridge Univ. Press, May 2015).
• Robin Griffith-Jones & Mark Hill (eds.), Magna Carta, Religion and the Rule of Law, (Cambridge Univ. Press, April 2015).
• John Slight, The British Empire and the Hajj 1865-1956, (Harvard Univ. Press, Sept. 2015).
• John L. Esposito, Tamara Sonn & John O. Voll, Islam and Democracy after the Arab Spring, (Oxford Univ. Press, Nov. 2015).

Court Upholds Military Reprimand To Enlistee For Objecting To Same-Sex Wedding

In Wilson v. James, (D DC, Oct. 13, 2015), the D.C. federal district court dismissed RFRA, 1st and 5th Amendment and various other challenges by an enlisted member of the Utah Air National Guard to letters of reprimand he received for his opposition to a same-sex wedding ceremony held at West Point's chapel.

After reading about the wedding ceremony, Layne Wilson, a Mormon, sent an e-mail using his military account to a major whom he believed to be the chaplain at the U.S. Military Academy, saying in part: "Our base chapels are a place of worship and this [is] a mockery to God and our military core values." His commander issued a letter of reprimand for this, which led to Wilson to rebuke his commander on Facebook, posting: "You embarrass me, our country, and our unit!!!...." That led to a second letter of reprimand and suspension of Wilson's security clearance. Wilson sued, bringing, in the court's words, "a bevy of claims." Rejecting Wilson's RFRA claim, the court said in part:

A substantial burden on one’s religious beliefs—as distinct from such a burden on one’s exercise of religious beliefs—does not violate RFRA....

Admittedly, the First LOR likely chilled Plaintiff’s speech regarding his religious beliefs, especially within the military setting. But nowhere does Plaintiff assert that LDS doctrine requires him to publicly voice his dissent about homosexuality or same-sex marriage.... Plaintiff only contends that, under LDS doctrine, homosexuality is a sin.... His religious belief, however, does not become a protected religious exercise under RFRA simply because Plaintiff expressed it through speech.

Rejecting Wilson's free speech claim, the court held:

An email from an enlisted member of the military that protests the decision of a senior military official outside the sender’s chain of command and urges that official to reverse his decision receives no First Amendment protection.

Judicial Ethics Complaint Cites Alabama Justice's Remarks On Same-Sex Marriage Precedent

The Southern Poverty Law Center yesterday filed an ethics complaint (full text) with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama alleging that Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker violated the state's Code of Judicial Ethics when, in a radio interview, he suggested that the Alabama Supreme Court defy the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage. As summarized by an SPLC press release:

The complaint cites comments made by Parker during an Oct. 6 radio show, “Focal Point,” hosted by Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. Fischer has used his radio show to promote outrageous, denigrating claims about LGBT people, Muslims, Native Americans and African Americans.

In the interview, Parker not only discussed a marriage equality case pending before the Alabama Supreme Court – Ex parte State v. King – he voiced his personal opinion about the case and suggested that Alabama should defy the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in order to lead to a “revival of what we need in this country.”

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Jennifer Lee Koh, Agape, Grace, and Immigration Law: An Evangelical Perspective, (September 26, 2015).
• John Copeland Nagle, Pope Francis, Environmental Anthropologist, (Regent University Law Review, Vol. 28, 2016, Forthcoming).
• Shawn Rajanayagam & Carolyn M. Evans, Corporations and Freedom of Religion: Australia and the United States Compared, (Sydney Law Review, Vol. 38, No. 3, 2015).
• Mirjam Künkler & Hanna Lerner, A Private Matter? Religious Education and Democracy in Indonesia and Israel, (British Journal of Religious Education, Forthcoming).
• Helen M. Alvare, The Opposite of Anarchy and the Transmission of Faith: The Freedom to Teach after Smith, Hosanna Tabor, Obergefell and the Ascendancy of Sexual Expressionism, (San Diego Law Review, Forthcoming 2015).
• Helen M. Alvare, Religious Freedom versus Sexual Expression: A Guide, (Journal of Law and Religion, 2015, Forthcoming).
• Chiara Cosentino, Safe and Legal Abortion: An Emerging Human Right? The Long-Lasting Dispute with State Sovereignty in ECHR Jurisprudence, (Human Rights Law Review (2015) 15 (3): 569-589).

From SSRN (Islamic Law):

• Bernard Kenneth Freamon, ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Human Right to Freedom from Slavery Under Islamic Law, (Fordham International Law Journal, Forthcoming).
• Haider Ala Hamoudi, Sex and the Shari’a: Defining Gender Norms and Sexual Deviancy in Shi’i Islam, (Fordham International Law Journal, Vol. 39, 2015).
• Federica Sona, Overcoming Obstacles Through Hidden Nuptial Paths: Foreign Muslim Purported Spouses Marrying in Italy, (Review of Social Studies (RoSS), Vol.2, No.1, Spring 2015, pp.25-53).

From SSRN (Same-Sex Marriage):

• Helen M. Alvare, Marriage and Family as the New Property: Obergefell, Marriage and the Hand of the State, (Regent University Law Review, Forthcoming).
• S. Ernie Walton, Conservatives Should Attack Obergefell's Interpretive Method, Not Its Hijacking of the Democratic Process, (September 25, 2015).
• Ethan J. Leib, Hail Marriage and Farewell, (Fordham Law Review, Vol. 84, 2015).
• Keith Cunningham-Parmeter, Marriage Equality, Workplace Inequality: The Next Gay Rights Battle, (Florida Law Review, Vol. 67, 2015).
• Fichera, Massimo, ‘Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits’ Same-Sex Marriage and the Role of Transnational Law: Changes in the European Landscape, (Helsinki Legal Studies Research Paper No. 39, Sept. 2015).

9 Alabama Counties Stop Issuing Marriage Licenses In Response To Marriage Equality Ruling

AP reports today that in at least 9 of Alabama's 67 counties judges have completely stopped issuing marriage licences now that the U.S. Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriages.  The judges are relying on a 1961 change in Alabama's law that made it optional rather than mandatory for probate courts to issue marriage licences.  This has created a region in southwest Alabama with a population of 78,000 in which residents will have to travel to other counties to obtain a license.

Pope Francis Met With Kim Davis; Supports Conscientious Objection

In a press release issued yesterday, Liberty Counsel disclosed that Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis met with Pope Francis at the Vatican Embassy in Washington last Thursday. Davis' husband was also at the private meeting during which the Pope, speaking in English, thanked Davis for her courage and presented her with rosaries for her parents who are Catholic. Davis has refused to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples, and was jailed for contempt for several days as a result. (See prior posting.) In a press conference on his plane back to Rome (before the meeting with Davis was announced publicly), the Pope told reporters that conscientious objection is a human right. When asked whether that applies to government officials, the Pope responded: "It is a human right and if a government official is a human person, he has that right."

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Meital Pinto, The Absence of the Right to Culture of Minorities Within Minorities in Israel: A Tale of a Cultural Dissent Case, (4 Laws 579–601 (2015)).
• Janne Elisabeth Nijman, Grotius’ Imago Dei Anthropology: Grounding Ius Naturae et Gentium, (Martti Koskenniemi, Monica García-Salmones, and Paolo Amoroso (Eds.), International law and Religion (Forthcoming)).
• Eric Heinze, Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship, (in Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship, Oxford University Press, February 2016).
• Darryl Li, Jihad in a World of Sovereigns: Law, Violence, and Islam in the Bosnia Crisis, (Law and Social Inquiry, 2015).
• Christopher R. Hoyt, Income Tax Deductions for Charitable Bequests of IRD, (September 24, 2015).

From SSRN (Same-Sex Marriage):

• James M. Donovan, Half-Baked: The Demand by For-Profit Businesses for Religious Exemptions from Selling to Same-Sex Couples, (Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Vol. 49, 2015).
• Patrick Talbot, Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty Clashes in the U.S., After Obergefell v. Hodges: (An American Constitutional Challenge), (Anthology on Religious Freedom by Center of Ethics and Socio-Religiosity Studies Petra Christian University (PCU), Forthcoming).
• Anthony C. Infanti, Victims of Our Own Success: The Perils of Obergefell and Windsor, (Ohio State Law Journal Furthermore, Forthcoming).
• Peter Nicolas, Obergefell's Squandered Potential, (California Law Review Circuit, 2015 Forthcoming).

Pope Francis Addresses Clergy Sex Abuse and New Definitions of Marriage

As reported by Vatican Radio, Pope Francis today in Philadelphia held a private meeting with victims of clergy sexual abuse. He then addressed a meeting of bishops and departed from his prepared remarks to begin as follows:

I hold the stories and the suffering and the sorrow of children who were sexually abused by priests deep in my heart.  I remain overwhelmed with shame that men entrusted with the tender care of children violated these little ones and caused grievous harm.  I am profoundly sorry. God weeps.

The crimes and sins of the sexual abuse of children must no longer be held in secret.  I pledge the zealous vigilance of the Church to protect children and the promise of accountability for all.

They, the survivors of abuse, have become true heralds of hope and ministers of mercy. We humbly owe each one of them and their families our gratitude for their immense courage to shine the light of Christ on the evil of the sexual abuse of children.

I’m telling you this because I’ve just met with a group of sex abuse victims who are being helped and accompanied here in Philadelphia.

The remainder of his remarks to the bishops are also carried in the same Vatican Radio coverage. Those remarks included the following, which appears to be a reference to the legal recognition of same-sex marriage:

Needless to say, our understanding, shaped by the interplay of ecclesial faith and the conjugal experience of sacramental grace, must not lead us to disregard the unprecedented changes taking place in contemporary society, with their social, cultural – and now juridical – effects on family bonds.  These changes affect all of us, believers and non-believers alike.  Christians are not “immune” to the changes of their times.  This concrete world, with all its many problems and possibilities, is where we must live, believe and proclaim.

Until recently, we lived in a social context where the similarities between the civil institution of marriage and the Christian sacrament were considerable and shared.  The two were interrelated and mutually supportive.  This is no longer the case. 

More On Rowan County, Kentucky, and Marriage Licenses

When Kentucky federal district court Judge David Bunning released Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis from jail where she had been placed for refusing to comply with a court order to issue same-sex marriage licenses (see prior posting), he also ordered the five deputy clerks who agreed to comply with the order to file a status report every 14 days. (Full text of order). The first of the ordered reports (full text) was filed on Sept. 18 on behalf of Deputy Brian Mason, the Deputy Clerk who, by mutual agreement, is actually issuing the licenses.  He reports in detail on language changes Kim Davis made in the forms. These include elimination of references to Davis in the form. The other Deputy Clerks filed their first status reports yesterday (Sept. 21).  Perhaps the most interesting (full text) is the one filed on behalf of Deputy Clerk Kristy Plank, which says in part:

As of this filing, Mrs. Plank reports that, to the best of her knowledge, all requests for marriage licenses requested by legally qualified couples have been issued.  The only denial of a marriage license application that has occurred within the last two weeks was to a gentleman who stated that he wanted a license that would permit him to marry “Jesus”. When it was explained to the individual that both parties had to be present, he stated, “Jesus is always present”. After being denied, the gentleman returned later and presented a type of Power of Attorney document issued by his church granting him authority to sign “Jesus’” name. Since both parties were not present these requests were denied.

For those who want to follow all the filings in this case (and in other cases involving LGBT rights), a comprehensive source is the non-profit organization Equality Case Files which posts these primary source materials online.  They are most easily accessed through the group's Twitter feed, its Facebook page or its library on Scribd. [Thanks to Marty Lederman via Religionlaw for the lead.]

UPDATE: On Sept. 21, the ACLU filed a motion (full text) with the court asking it to issue an order requiring marriage licences issued by the Rowan County Clerk's Office to be in the form that was used prior to Sept. 8, and not in the altered form that Davis has imposed. The motion argues that the changes-- especially listing the person signing it as "Notary Public" rather than "Deputy Clerk"-- cast question on the validity of the license and casts "a stamp of animus against the LGBT community."

Recent Articles of Interest

From SSRN:

• Amélie Barras & Dia Dabby, Only Skin Deep? Revising the Secular Narrative Through Circumcision, (Heather Shipley (ed.), Globalized Religion and Sexual Identity: Contexts, Contestations, Voices (Brill Academic Publishing, 2014), 86-106).
• Ifzal Mehmood, Siddiq Ali Chishti & Muhammad Hassan, Right of Women to Divorce: Adjudication of Redemption (Khul‘) in Islamic Law and Pakistani Law, a Critical Analysis of the Orthodox Islamic Scholars and Recommendations of Pakistani Courts on the Basis of Legal Opinion (Ijtihad), (Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 2015).
• Kathryn Chan, The Advancement of Religion as a Charitable Purpose in an Age of Religious Neutrality, (September 12, 2015).
• Lynne Marie Kohm, The Unspoken Consequences of Obergefell: Calling Convictional Christian Scholars, (September 15, 2015).
• Steve Sanders, RFRAs and Reasonableness, (Indiana Law Journal, Forthcoming).
• Kellen R. Funk, Shall These Bones Live? Property, Pluralism, and the Constitution of Evangelical Reform, (Law and Social Inquiry, Forthcoming).
• Kari E. Hong, Obergefell's Sword: The Liberal State Interest in Marriage, (University of Illinois Law Review, Forthcoming).

From SmartCILP:

• Sonu Bedi, The Horizontal Effect of a Right to Non-Discrimination in Employment: Religious Autonomy Under the U.S. Constiution and the Constitution of South Africa, 95 Boston University Law Review 1181-1204 (2015).
• Robin Fretwell Wilson, Bargaining for Civil Rights: Lessons From Mrs. Murphy for Same-Sex Marriage and LGBT Rights, 95 Boston University Law Review 951-993 (2015).
• Michelle Kundmueller, The Devil Is In All the Details (Not Just In Georgia), [LEXIS link], 13 First Amendment Law Review 221-261 (2014).

Paper Profiles Mat Staver and His Organzation Liberty Counsel

The Orlando Sentinel this weekend carries a lengthy profile of Mat Staver and his and his Christian conservative legal organization, Liberty Counsel.  Staver has recently been in the news because of his high profile representation or Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

The maelstrom that formed earlier this month around Davis — an Apostolic Christian who said she was acting on her faith — involves factions Staver knows well. Liberty Counsel, a Maitland-based legal organization he founded, has spent decades representing the conservative vanguard in debates over abortion, gay marriage and religion's place in the public sphere.

In the process, the nonprofit has ballooned from a tiny venture collecting less than $200,000 in yearly donations to a multipronged organization that hauled in more than $4 million in the 2013 tax year, employs 10 staff attorneys, runs an outreach to Israel and even released its own feature film last year.

6th Circuit Denies Kim Davis Stay of Injunction Pending Appeal

Yesterday in Miller v. Davis, (6th Cir., Sept. 17, 2015), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion by Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis to stay the preliminary injunction against her, pending appeal. The district court had enjoined Davis from refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  The appeals court said that Davis had not sought a stay from the district court, as required by Federal Rules, before asking the Court of Appeals for a stay.  Davis argued that it would have been useless to go to the district court first.

UPDATE: Marty Lederman at Balkinization blog (9/19) has a lengthy discussion of whether Kim Davis or her office is in violation of the federal district court's injunction in the implementation of the issuance by a deputy clerk of marriage licences with modified language.

Probate Judge Asks Alabama Supreme Court To Protect His Refusal To Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licences

As reported by AL.com, on Wednesday Alabama Probate Judge Nick Williams filed an "Emergency Petition for Declaratory Judgment and/or Protective Order In Light of Jailing of Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis" (full text of petition) and a Memorandum In Support of the motion (full text). Williams objects on religious grounds to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The petition begins:

The jailing of Kentucky Clerk Kimberly B. Davis puts at immediate risk the liberty interest of all faithful and religiously sincere public officials in Alabama whose office has responsibility for making decisions as to whether to give sanction and honor to homosexual relationships to include the issuance of a license to engage in sodomy.  These officers need this Court's declaration that their sincerely held religious beliefs do not disqualify them from holding their office.

Last March, the Alabama Supreme Court issued a writ of mandamus ordering Probate Court judges around the state to discontinue the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples, (See prior posting.)  Judge Williams emergency motion was technically filed as a motion in that case, captioned in the motion as Ex parte State of Alabama ex rel Alabama Policy Institute v. King (Case No. 1140460). .

Update on Kim Davis and Marriage Licenses In Kentucky

On Monday, Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis, after spending 5 days in jail on contempt charges, returned to work still opposed on religious grounds to issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples.  However, as reported by CNN, she did not prevent her deputy clerks from issuing licences reading that they were issued "pursuant to federal court order." Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear said that the state will recognize these licenses as valid.  Meanwhile, yesterday in Davis v. Beshear, (6th Cir., Sept. 15, 2015), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Davis request for a preliminary injunction against the Governor and the Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives seeking to prevent them from enforcing the district court order that county clerks issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and exempting her from issuing licenses pending appeal of the district court's delay in passing on her request for an injunction. (See prior related posting.) The court said in part:

Davis maintains that the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples burdens her sincerely held religious beliefs in violation of the U.S. Constitution, the Kentucky Constitution, and the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Davis has not demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on her federal constitutional claims. We need not address the merits of her claims under Kentucky law because the Eleventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution precludes the federal courts from compelling state officials to comply with state law.

Oregon Judge Faces Ethics Charges Over Refusing Same-Sex Weddings and Other Matters

The Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability announced in a press release issued Tuesday that a hearing is scheduled next month on ethics charges filed against Marion County Judge Vance Day.  (See prior related posting.) Day has religious objections to same-sex marriage, and one of the charges against him is that before he decided to discontinue entirely performing wedding ceremonies, he had his staff screen wedding applicants to assure that he was not presiding over a same-sex marriage.  However Day, who is head of the Veterans Treatment Court, also faces five other unrelated charges including false statements, improperly allowing a veteran with a prior felony conviction to handle firearms and posting a picture of Adolph Hitler in the county courthouse.  According to CBS News, the Hitler portrait was part of a collage included in memorabilia of a local doctor who had served in World War II. The portrait was surrounded and partially obscured by pages from the doctor's diary, medals and photos.

Meanwhile, The Oregonian reported yesterday that another Oregon state trial court judge, Washington County Judge Thomas Kohl, has also stopped performing weddings now that same-sex marriages are legal.  Kohl has written and speaks widely in churches and prisons about the transformative power of faith.

Saga of Recalcitrant Rowan County Clerk Continues

Developments over the Labor Day weekend have made same-sex marriage opponent Kim Davis-- the Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk who was remanded to jail on civil contempt charges Thursday for refusing to allow her office to issue marriage licenses-- into a high profile symbol of conservative Christian resistance to the U.S. Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision. (On details of her jailing, see prior posting.)  As reported by the Washington Post, on Friday morning, Deputy Clerk Brian Mason began issuing marriage licenses without Davis' name appearing on them. The County Attorney had ruled that deputy clerks do not need Davis' approval to issue licenses.  However Davis' attorneys argue that these licenses are void.   Marty Lederman at Balkinization blog on Saturday posted a detailed analysis of Kentucky law on this and related issues.

Meanwhile Davis' attorneys have filed motions seeking to get Davis released from jail. Before Davis was held in contempt, she had already filed an appeal with the 6th Circuit seeking to overturn the preliminary injunction that had been issued ordering her to end her resistance. (See prior posting). On Sunday, her attorneys filed an amended notice of appeal (full text), appealing the contempt citation against her as well as the district court's order clarifying that its injunction required issuance of licenses to all qualified couples, not just the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. A Liberty Counsel press release announcing the filing said in part:

“While most Americans are enjoying the extended holiday weekend with family and friends, Kim Davis sits in isolation for the fourth day in jail,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “We are working through the holiday to secure Kim’s freedom”....

In a subsequent press release on Monday announcing a press conference and rally for this afternoon, Davis' attorneys said:

Kim Davis has never sought the spotlight. Although some people have said she is a hero and some accuse her of wanting to be a martyr, neither is true. Kim bristles at the thought. She loves God, loves people, and loves her job. She remains faithful to all three and that is why she is here in jail. She may be a prisoner because of her faith, but Kim is freer than most Americans.

Yesterday, Davis' attorneys also filed a separate emergency motion for an injunction (full text) asking the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to bar enforcement against her of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's memo ordering Clerks to comply with the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision, and asking that the court exempt her from being required to authorized same-sex marriages. Marty Lederman has extensive analysis of this motion as well.

Mic reports that conservative politicians are drawing analogies to the civil rights movement.  Iowa Congressman Steve King said that Davis should be considered for the Rosa Parks award, and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee compared the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision to the Dred Scott decision.