Thursday, August 27, 2015
Sixth Circuit Refuses Stay in Kentucky Court Clerk Case
The Sixth Circuit's brief Order in Miller v. Davis refused to stay the district court's preliminary injunction mandating that a court clerk in Kentucky issue same-sex marriage licenses (or any marriage licenses) despite her claim of free exercise of religion.
Here's the essence of the Sixth Circuit panel opinion:
The request for a stay pending appeal relates solely to an injunction against Davis in her official capacity. The injunction operates not against Davis personally, but against the holder of her office of Rowan County Clerk. In light of the binding holding of Obergefell, it cannot be defensibly argued that the holder of the Rowan County Clerkâs office, apart from who personally occupies that office, may decline to act in conformity with the United States Constitution as interpreted by a dispositive holding of the United States Supreme Court. There is thus little or no likelihood that the Clerk in her official capacity will prevail on appeal.
This should be the end of this litigation?
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/2015/08/sixth-circuit-refuses-stay-in-ketucky-court-clerk-case.html
Predictably, the 6th Circuit Court said nothing about the unconstitutionality of the Obergefell ruling itself. It is at this juncture Kentucky should weigh in by asserting its 10th Amendment authority. The federal judiciary has no weight in such matters; defining marriage is, without question, a State prerogative. We so live in a post-Constitutional period. If the States and People continue to yield their sovereignty to Leviathan, the USofA is little more than a benevolent dictatorship. I'm sick of it.
Posted by: Jim Delaney | Aug 28, 2015 7:04:14 AM