Kentucky clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses is jailed

ASHLAND, Ky., Sept 3 (Reuters) - A county clerk in Kentucky who refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds was found in contempt by a U.S. federal judge on Thursday for defying his order to do so and taken into custody.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis was led away by U.S. marshals.

"The court doesn't do this lightly," District Court Judge David Bunning said in ordering she be taken into custody.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kim-davis-jail_55e87ea8e4b0b7a9633c2c4a

Expecting a huge uproar over this from the Christian Right -- I hope I'm wrong.

Better coverage at this link: http://news.yahoo.com/clerk-gay-marriage-case-appear-federal-court-151835477.html

All she has to do is resign.  She is entitled to her conscience; she just cannot say she speaks for the state, or carries out any acts of the state in conformance with any religion.

I have warned on here that we are heading for a confrontation between the various protections of civil rights in the Constitution, and the freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment.  Conservatives will argue (falsely, but whose counting) that they have a religious conviction to oppose the civil rights of others.

But that religious conviction does not go to an official who is carrying out the duties of a state.  In that capacity, she involves the state, and that is in direct conflict with the '[no] establishment clause' in the same amendment.  If she detaches herself from the state--that is to say, resigns her commission as the County Clerk, then it's a private conviction.  Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, 573 U.S. ___ (2014),

It kind of begs the question of why she wants to keep working for an institution that offends her so deeply in the first place

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/09/01/kentucky-clerk-fighting-gay-marriage-has-wed-four-times

She is a thief.  A thief of the stewardship of government.

Government in America expressly excludes religion and the use of religious standards in the exercise of authority.

She has stolen the stewardship of government and placed religion in the role of authority.

She is a thief, and therefore must be punished.