U.S.

Kim Davis, Released From Kentucky Jail, Won’t Say if She Will Keep Defying Court

By ALAN BLINDER and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑASEPT. 8, 2015

GRAYSON, Ky. — After five nights in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk, walked free Tuesday to a roar of cheers from thousands of supporters, but she and her lawyer would not say whether she would continue to defy court orders and try to block the licenses.

Outside the jail here, a planned demonstration by people who, like Ms. Davis, say that same-sex marriage violates their religious beliefs turned buoyant when she was released, the sense of triumph mixed with a dose of presidential politics.

She walked onstage to thunderous applause, the song “Eye of the Tiger” playing on loudspeakers, her hands held aloft by one of her lawyers, Mathew D. Staver, and Mike Huckabee, a Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor. Another Republican presidential contender, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, was also in attendance but largely overshadowed.

Ms. Davis broke down in tears and spoke only briefly, not addressing the issues in her case.

“I just want to give God the glory,” she told the crowd, some waving white crosses. “His people have rallied, and you are a strong people. Just keep on pressing. Don’t let down. Because he is here.”

But her release came with a stern warning from Judge David L. Bunning of Federal District Court, who on Thursday sent her to jail and directed five of her deputies to issue licenses without her approval. In a two-page order on Tuesday, he wrote that he was setting her free because her office was “fulfilling its obligation to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples,” but that he would respond to any further defiance.

“Defendant Davis shall not interfere in any way, directly or indirectly, with the efforts of her deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples,” he wrote. “If Defendant Davis should interfere in any way with their issuance, that will be considered a violation of this order and appropriate sanctions will be considered.”

Last week, one of Ms. Davis’s lawyers signaled in court that Ms. Davis would not consent to her office’s processing marriage licenses under existing guidelines. On Tuesday, reporters asked repeatedly if she would abide by the latest court order. Ms. Davis remained silent, and Mr. Staver said, “She’s not going to violate her conscience.”

The central issue for Ms. Davis is that the licenses say they are issued by the Rowan County clerk, and she, as the clerk, will not authorize them. If that feature is eliminated, Mr. Staver said, she will not stand in the way of granting licenses. “The court order did not resolve the underlying issue,” he said.

He called once again on Gov. Steven L. Beshear, a Democrat in his final year in office, to change the wording of the licenses. Mr. Beshear has said he does not have that authority and will not intervene in “a matter between her and the courts.”

The demonstration turned buoyant with Ms. Davis’s release. Credit Ty Wright/Getty Images

The Legislature could change the law on marriage licenses to accommodate objections like Ms. Davis’s. But the governor has said he will not call a special legislative session this year, which he said would be a waste of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mr. Staver says licenses issued by Ms. Davis’s office without her approval are void, possibly signaling another legal fight. The Rowan County attorney and the state attorney general say they are valid.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Ms. Davis said her Apostolic Christian faith prevented her from approving such unions, so her office stopped issuing marriage licenses to any couples, same-sex or opposite-sex.

After Judge Bunning ruled last month that she must issue the licenses, a federal appeals court and then the Supreme Court declined to stay his order, pending her appeal. When she maintained her resistance, he held her in contempt and sent her to jail.

Her argument and incarceration have resonated deeply among Christian conservatives who say they fear an erosion of religious liberty, and transformed an obscure local official in a rural corner of Kentucky into a national symbol of unyielding resistance to same-sex marriage.

Of the two presidential contenders who attended the rally, it was Mr. Huckabee, making his second White House run, who grabbed the political spotlight. Before Ms. Davis appeared, Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Staver took the stage to tell the crowd, in unison, “Kim Davis is free.”

When Mr. Cruz, who met with Ms. Davis, exited the Carter County Detention Center, a throng of journalists beckoned him toward their microphones, but an aide to Mr. Huckabee blocked the path of the senator, who appeared incredulous.

Soon after, Ms. Davis emerged, apparently wearing the same clothes she had worn in court Thursday. Mr. Huckabee stuck close by her side, along with Mr. Staver and her husband, Joe, as they approached the reporters and cameras. Ms. Davis remained silent, letting Mr. Staver and Mr. Huckabee do the talking.

Mr. Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, cast the dispute as a matter of religious freedom threatened by overreaching courts, while Mr. Cruz stood to the side, keeping an unusually low profile.

“If you have to put someone in jail, let me go,” Mr. Huckabee told the crowd. “Every one of us will have to decide whether we want to keep this great country or whether we want to surrender and sacrifice it to tyranny.”

Ms. Davis said, “Thank you all so much; I love you all so very much.”

This small town near the West Virginia border, population 4,200, swelled with people arriving for the rally, along with a smaller group supporting same-sex marriage, bringing traffic to a crawl. One entrepreneur offered parking spaces for $20 each.

Many demonstrators, few of them expecting that Ms. Davis would be released, brought lawn chairs. On one side, there were signs with Bible verses and one comparing the Supreme Court to the Islamic State, while a man with a megaphone urged people to repent. On the other, people waved signs saying “God Loves!!!! Period!”

Linda Clark, 40, an opponent of same-sex marriage from Olive Hill, Ky., said, “We’re happy for God to raise an army for what the majority of people want.”

A number of other local officials in several states, including two other county clerks in Kentucky, have taken stances similar to that of Ms. Davis. Chris Jobe, the president of the Kentucky County Clerks Association, has said that half of the state’s 120 county clerks said they objected on religious grounds to issuing licenses to same-sex couples, though most of them have not said they would defy the courts.

“It’s time for all God-fearing Americans to take a stand for truth, just like Kim Davis,” Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, said at the rally.

But Ria Mar, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the primary case against Ms. Davis, said in an email that the courts had spoken clearly. “To the extent any other clerks are still refusing to follow the law and treat everyone equally, there is simply no basis for further delay,” she said.

Sarah Warbelow, legal director of the Human Rights Campaign, a major gay rights group, said her main concern was that Ms. Davis and others in her position could start to treat license applications differently. “She might start issuing licenses to opposite-sex couples and making her deputies issue licenses to same-sex couples,” Ms. Warbelow said.

For Republican presidential candidates, Ms. Davis’s situation has become a litmus test of commitment to religious freedom. Those who are relying on the support of social conservatives have ardently backed her cause. Others have expressed respect for her views while saying the law must be heeded

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have also criticized Ms. Davis’s jailing. Some have suggested finding alternative ways to avoid standoffs in cases where elected officials say they are being required to act against their religious beliefs; Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said Tuesday that Ms. Davis should be moved into a different role so that her religious freedom was protected while government continued to function. Carly Fiorina, a former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, said last week that the rule of law should be paramount and that Ms. Davis might want to consider changing jobs.

Donald J. Trump did his best not to offend evangelical Christians who have been strong supporters of his candidacy. He called it a “sticky situation” and said he saw both sides of the issue, before adding that ultimately, “we are a nation of laws” and that someone in the clerk’s office must issue the licenses.

Correction: September 11, 2015
An article on Wednesday about the release from jail of the Kentucky county clerk, Kim Davis, misstated, in some editions, part of the name of the hometown of Linda Clark, a demonstrator outside the county jail where Ms. Davis was housed. It is Olive Hill, Ky., not Olive Hall.

Alan Blinder reported from Grayson, and Richard Pérez-Peña from New York. John Mura contributed reporting from Grayson, and Alan Rappeport from Washington.

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Tuesday, October 6, 2015