A county clerk in Kentucky who was briefly jailed for refusing to problem marriage licenses to gay couples mentioned on Friday that she and her family have switched to the Republican Celebration mainly because the Democrats no longer represented them.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, 50, who has said her beliefs as an Apostolic Christian protect against her from issuing marriage licenses to similar-sex couples, mentioned they had changed parties last week. She was a long-time Democrat in eastern Kentucky.
“My husband and I had talked about it for quite a while and we came to the conclusion that the Democratic Party left us a extended time ago, so why have been we hanging on?” she told Reuters in an interview at a hotel in Washington, exactly where she has traveled to be feted at a Household Study Council event later on Friday.
Davis also said she did not foresee a trouble with the existing marriage licenses getting issued by her office in Morehead, Kentucky. Critics have charged the altered licenses, which removed her name and title and the name of the county, violate an order issued by U.S. District Judge David Bunning and raise queries about their validity.
“I never consider there must be a great deal of an issue and the judge did not have any dilemma accepting the licenses that had been issued when I was incarcerated, which had been altered, so I don’t see that there must be an issue,” she stated.
Davis added, nevertheless, that if the new licenses became an situation for Bunning, she was prepared to return to jail.
Davis was jailed for 5 days in September for refusing to comply with Bunning’s order to concern licenses in line with a Supreme Court ruling in June that made gay marriage legal across the United States.
The stance has produced Davis and the issuance of marriage licenses to exact same-sex couples in Kentucky and other states the newest focus in a lengthy-running debate more than gay marriage in the United States.
She has won support from some conservative Republicans, who say the concern is about religious freedom. Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz had been amongst some four,000 supporters who attended a rally with Davis just after her release.
Davis, who returned to work on Sept. 14, has been beneath the threat of returning to jail if she interferes in the issuance of licenses.
The couples have asked Bunning to contemplate ordering a limited receivership for the clerk’s office and fines to make sure that it concerns valid marriage licenses.
Attorneys for Davis have said the modifications made to the kind have been a excellent-faith work to stick to her religious beliefs and to meet the court’s order.
Right after the Supreme Court selection, Davis announced an office policy that no marriage licenses would be issued to any couples. Lawyers representing two similar-sex couples and two opposite-sex couples challenged her policy.
Bunning ordered Davis jailed for contempt on Sept. 3 for refusing to comply with his order to problem licenses. He ordered her released five days later when deputy clerks were issuing licenses.
Davis has asked Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat, state lawmakers and Bunning to accommodate her beliefs. She has also appealed Bunning’s orders to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Read the original write-up on Reuters. Copyright 2015. Follow Reuters on Twitter.
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