Kentucky county clerk asks Supreme Court for ‘asylum for her conscience’

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Two months after it legalized gay marriage nationwide, the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked by a Kentucky county clerk for permission to keep denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who objects to gay marriage for religious reasons, asked the nation’s highest court Friday to grant her “asylum for her conscience.”

The Supreme Court ruled in June that the Constitution guarantees gay people the right to marry. But Davis contends the First Amendment guarantees her the right of religious freedom.

She stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision. Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her, arguing that she must fulfill her duties as an elected official despite her personal Christian conviction. A federal judge ordered Davis to issue the licenses and an appeals court upheld that decision.

Davis’ lawyers said they filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court on Friday, asking that they delay the mandate to issue licenses until her appeal is finished, a process that could stretch for months.

Forcing her to abandon her Christian principles and issue licenses could never be undone, her attorney, Jonathan Christman, with the Christian law firm Liberty Counsel, wrote the court.

The couples could easily drive to a nearby county to get a marriage license, Davis argued. But the couples counter that they have a right to get a marriage license in the county where they live, work and pay taxes.

Davis’ case will fall to Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal judge who joined the majority opinion in legalizing gay marriage. Kagan could reject it outright in a matter of days, or she could ask the couples’ attorneys to file a response and refer it to court for review.