When bigoted, homophobic Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis was released from jail after being thrown behind bars for contempt of court, the judge released her on one condition, and one condition alone: No interfering with same-sex marriage licenses. Upon her release, despite the judge’s warning that “appropriate sanctions would be considered” if she continued to interfere, Davis vowed to do exactly that — and now, she appears to be making good on that promise.
An attorney for Brian Mason, the deputy clerk who promised to defy Davis in the extremely likely event that she would continue to interfere with licensing for same-sex couples, says that the rascally bigot is up to her old tricks, and seems to have defied the judge’s order by altering marriage forms. On Friday, Mason’s attorney told the judge that upon Davis’ return to work on Monday she got quite busy before hiding in her office.
According to Mason’s attorney Richard Hughes, Davis “confiscated all the original forms” and replaced them with forms that did not include her name, the county, or any references to the deputy clerks. The new form simply includes Mason’s name and a place for him to initial — not even a signature line. In his filing, the attorney detailed Mason’s account of what had happened:
“Kim Davis came to the office and confiscated all the original forms, and provided a changed form which deletes all mentions of the County, fills in one of the blanks that would otherwise be the County with the Court’s styling, deletes her name, deletes all of the deputy clerk references, and in place of deputy clerk types in the name of Brian Mason, and has him initial rather than sign. There is now a notarization beside his initials in place of where otherwise signatures would be.
“It also appears to this counsel those changes were made in some attempt to circumvent the court’s orders and may have raised to the level of interference against the court’s orders,” Hughes wrote, noting that “these changes may in fact have some substantial questions about validity.”
The new forms say that the licenses are being issued “Pursuant to Federal Court Order #15-CV-44 DLB,” which Davis’ attorney contends would allow gay couples to be legally married without his client violating her conscience and tarnishing the sanctity of her four marriages.
Since her release, Davis has maintained that any license that has been issued is not valid unless she authorizes it. These unauthorized alterations to the marriage forms seem to be a blatant attempt to invalidate each and every license that has been issued — a concern the American Civil Liberties Union is not taking lightly. According to the ACLU, whose attorneys represented some of the victims of Davis’ discrimination, the new forms may not meet the requirements for marriage licenses under Kentucky state law. Hughes shares their concern:
“Mr. Mason’s concern is he does not want to be the party that is issuing invalid marriage licenses and he is trying to follow the court’s mandate as well as his superior ordering him to issue only these changed forms, and only with initials and only as notarized” Hughes wrote, “which in the last example I have seen are not even notarized.”
You can read the filing, below:
Featured Image via Statesville Record & Landmark
