Even though she's been released from jail , Kentucky clerk Kim Davis said her opposition to issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples remains firm.
Fortunately, the same can't be said for her deputy clerk at Rowan County. Brian Mason, who was one of five deputies who complied with court order and began issuing same-sex marriage licenses in Davis's stead after she was jailed, said he will continue to do so even if his boss disapproves.
In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Mason said that Davis's release would have no impact on his work.
“I would issue licenses,” he said. And would he still issue licenses even if Davis demands he not upon her expected return to work either this Friday or early next week? "When Miss Davis comes back, I'll still issue licenses," he said, according to NBC.
The media firestorm over Davis, he said, has had little impact on his day-to-day work. Noting that he hadn't spoken to the clerk since her Sept. 3 jailing, Mason told NBC, "It's been a little hectic, but we still carry on business like we normally do."
U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered Davis released only after Mason and his colleagues began issuing licenses. Bunning has warned the clerk not to interfere with her deputies issuing marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples.
Kentucky law does not require a clerk's signature on the license to be valid but, rather, “the signature of the county clerk or deputy clerk issuing the license,” according to The New York Times. Rowan County Attorney Cecil Watkins told the Times that the licenses issued without Davis's assent would be valid, but Davis' attorney, Mathew Staver, said he believes licenses issued with his client's approval would be invalid.
Staver also argued that requiring Davis to issue same-sex marriage licenses would be like forcing someone to endorse a Ku Klux Klan rally, and similar to requiring a clerk to "grant a license to engage in pornography, to grant a license to sodomize children or something of that nature ... that would be harmful to the people involved in the activity."
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