Clerks must serve same-sex couples

Kim Davis is not a religious martyr. She is simply a public official who is refusing to do the job she was elected to do.

Davis, the county clerk of Rowan County, Ky., spent five days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses because, she said, issuing licenses to same-sex couples would be a sin. Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in June the day after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized same-sex marriages nationwide.

She was jailed Thursday when she continued to refuse to issue licenses after being ordered by U.S. district Judge David Bunning to do so as a requirement of her office. She was released Tuesday after five clerks who work under Davis swore an oath that they would comply with the court’s order to issue marriage licenses to all couples.

Davis also was ordered not to interfere in any way with the clerks’ issuing of marriage licenses. If she does interfere, Bunning wrote in his order, the court will consider “appropriate sanctions.”

Many people, including hundreds of Davis supporters who gathered outside the jail, would like to portray this as religious persecution, an abridgement of her right to follow the dictates of her faith. GOP presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, sought to capitalize politically from this case by traveling to Rowan County Tuesday to meet Davis and declare their support for her.

“I told Kim today that I feel she has shown more courage than any politician I know and any pastor I know,” Huckabee said, standing next to Davis. “If someone needs to go to jail, I am willing to go to jail in her place. We cannot criminalize the Christian faith or any faith in this country.”

But the idea that this represents the criminalization of Christianity is nonsense. No one has attempted to prevent Davis from practicing her faith or following her conscience – as a private citizen.

But as a public employee, she swore an oath to serve all residents of the county and treat them equally. She has no right to impose her religious values on those she was elected to serve.

Public accommodations laws – upheld by the Constitution – require that those serving the general public – both businesses and governmental agencies – serve all customers regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or gender. That principle clearly prohibits county clerks from arbitrarily refusing service to gay couples.

If Davis believes strongly enough that her faith will not permit her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, she should resign. Otherwise, she is obligated to follow the law and perform the duties of a county clerk – just like thousands of other county clerks around the nation.

The U.S. Supreme Court has determined that same-sex couples are constitutionally guaranteed the same marital rights as heterosexual couples. Individuals have every right to disagree with that ruling. Ministers have the right to preach against it in the pulpit. Parishioners are free to declare their opposition to same-sex marriage and to work to change the law.

But public officials such as Davis have no right to defy the Constitution and to refuse to perform the duties they agreed to perform when they took the oath of office. We think Judge Bunning is being lenient in allowing Davis to return to work at all.

If she believes she is committing a sin by doing her appointed job, she should quit.

This story was originally published September 8, 2015 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Clerks must serve same-sex couples."