Governor-Elect Pledges to Take Clerks’ Names Off Kentucky Licenses

[jpak]

Source: New York Times

Two months after a county clerk in Kentucky became a national figure and was jailed for refusing to grant marriage licenses bearing her name to same-sex couples, the state’s governor-elect said Friday that soon after taking office, he would order new licenses that do not have clerks’ names, a change that would address one objection raised by opponents of same-sex marriage.

Lawyers for Kim Davis, the clerk in Rowan County who has said that same-sex marriage violates her Christian beliefs, have argued that forcing her to issue licenses with her name on them violated her rights by suggesting that she endorsed the unions. The courts have not agreed, but lawmakers have said the conflict could be resolved by altering the licenses.

“One thing I will take care of right away is we will remove the names of the county clerks from the marriage forms,” Matt Bevin, the Republican governor-elect, said Friday at a news conference at the State Capitol in Frankfort.

The departing governor, Steven L. Beshear, a Democrat, has insisted that an act of the Legislature was required to change the form and that a governor could not do it unilaterally.

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/us/kentucky-governor-elect-vows-to-remove-clerks-names-from-marriage-licenses.html?_r=0

[w0nderer]

1. did a R just slapdown kim davis? n/t

[whatthehey]

3. No - he helped her hide behind a fig leaf of non-responsibility.

[Hortensis]

2. Good for gays, but the betrayals of supporters begin,

this time of anti-gay-marriage Kim supporters who believed his statement that he was completely behind her obstruction of gay marriage. I don't remember his exact words, but apparently they did not mean what the reactionary right thought they did from this poseur angling for their votes. Well, all who voted for this guy who lied and deceived his way through the campaign deserve what they get, of course.

[former9thward]

5. This is what Davis wanted and called for.

The Democratic governor would not do it.

[jmowreader]

8. The Democratic governor COULDN'T do it, at least not by himself

The legislature had adjourned already. To make Davis happy, he would have had to spend a LOT of money calling a special session.

When Bevin takes office, the legislature will be in session. It'll be a very easy task to whip up a short bill, run it through the legislature and sign off on it.

[Hortensis]

9. Former, it was not necessary. Her office could issue

licenses without her or any one person signing anyway. She was just trying to prolong the attention.

And when the new governor said he was completely behind her, the religious right understood that did not mean a petty bureaucratic change to a line in the procedure manual to allow the office to continue to issue licenses to gays, just only without her signature.

This is what "weaseling" means.

[Tab]

4. I almost posted this yesterday but realized it's not what it seems

(aside from no longer being LBN)

The Gov-elect is not suggesting removing the names from those forms that have been approved. Rather he is going to remove FROM FUTURE FORMS the section for the name of the clerk. It's still somewhat silly, since I assume somewhere there's an initial or stamp or something that shows who processed the application, but anyway...

So, no longer will the forms contain an entry for the clerk's name. That's all that it is.

[Eric J in MN]

6. I hope this is the end of politicians benefiting from opposition

...to gay-marriage in a general election.

Hopefully, in 2016, the public will be used to gay-marriage enough that a politician can't benefit from opposing it in the general election.

[billhicks76]

7. God Hates Rich People And Liars

So lets not let them get married either. These people are scum.

[malthaussen]

10. The woman was "jailed" for contempt of court.

You'd think a publication like the New York Times would try to be accurate.

-- Mal