FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Kentucky's governor told a county clerk of the court Thursday that he should either issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or resign.
But Casey Davis, who is elected, said he would go to jail first.
"If that's what it takes for me to express the freedom of religion that I believe I was born with, I'm willing to do that," Davis said after his meeting with Gov. Steve Beshear.
Davis, the Casey County clerk of court, is one of the local elected officials across the country who have cited religious beliefs in refusing to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last month legalizing same-sex marriages nationwide. Their stance has prompted a debate about whether religious liberty extends to those officials, who are responsible for carrying out state government functions.
Beshear, a Democrat, fought to preserve Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage, even hiring private attorneys to defend it after the state's Democratic attorney general declined to do so. But Thursday, Beshear offered his strongest statement yet that Davis, and others who share his beliefs, must follow the law.
"When he was elected, he took a constitutional oath to uphold the United States Constitution," Beshear said in a news release. "One of Mr. Davis' duties as county court clerk is to issue marriage licenses, and the Supreme court (sic) now says that the United States constitution requires those marriage licenses to be issued regardless of gender."
But Davis and others have said they cannot be forced to do something that violates their religious beliefs. As he met with Beshear in the governor's office Thursday, about 50 of his friends and family stood outside praying in the Capitol rotunda.
Davis left the meeting saying the two had "agreed to disagree."
The issue of religious freedom will be before U.S. District Judge David Bunning on Monday when he hears arguments in another case involving clerk Kim Davis of Rowan County. She refused to issue marriages licenses to two gay couples and two heterosexual couples after the Supreme Court's ruling, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to seek an injunction forcing her to do so.
If a court were to issue such an injunction and the clerks defied it, they could be thrown in jail. But removing them from office would be difficult: As elected officials, they would have to be impeached by the General Assembly.
"The rest of the county court clerks are complying with the law regardless of their personal beliefs," Beshear said in a statement. "The courts and the voters will deal appropriately with the rest."
Clerk Chris Jobe in Lawrence County, president of the Kentucky County Clerks Association, announced earlier this week that 57 clerks had signed a letter to Beshear asking him to call a special session of the Kentucky Legislature to change Kentucky's marriage laws to protect local officials who object to same-sex marriage. But as of Thursday afternoon, the governor's office had received only three such letters: Kenny Brown in Boone County, Kim Davis in Rowan County and Jason Denny in Anderson County.
Beshear said again Thursday that he would not call the Legislature back into session. And Casey Davis reiterated Thursday that he would not resign, saying he would not quit on his family or the people that elected him.
"I'm going to be not wise in mine own eyes," he said, referring to a passage from the book of Proverbs in the Bible. "I'm going to fear the Lord and depart from evil."
Some clerks are declining to issue same-sex marriage licenses in at least five states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas, said Mat Staver, chairman and founder of Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal aid group.
In addition, at least two states, North Carolina and Utah, have passed laws allowing some court officials to refuse to perform gay marriages on the basis of religious beliefs.
In Missouri, at least two judges have opted not to marry any couples. Laclede County Associate Circuit Judges Larry Winfrey and Steve Jackson issued a joint statement this week on their decision.
"In light of the divisive impact of the recent United States Supreme Court decision on our society relative to the issue of marriage, we elect to not allow the integrity and respect of your local court to be tarnished by being caught up in the dissention created," the statement read. The judges refused to comment further.
While officials responsible for issuing marriage licenses must grant them to same-sex couples, Missouri judges have the option to perform weddings, although codes guiding judicial conduct prohibit them from discriminating. That means if judges don't want to marry same-sex couples, they can't marry opposite-sex couples, either.
It's unclear how many other judges have opted to do the same.
Information for this article was contributed by Summer Ballentine and John Hanna of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/10/2015