A Right to Refuse Marriage Licenses
As the county clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, Kim Davis made the national news by defying a federal court order that she must issue marriage licenses to homosexuals, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Regarding that case, on June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by the 14th Amendment, specifically, the “due process” and “equal protection” clauses of Section 1.
But when one studies the history of the 14th Amendment, including the debates in Congress during its creation, one discovers that its purpose was to grant citizenship to the newly freed slaves, so that they could enjoy the same rights as everyone else. It had nothing to do with same-sex “marriage.” How could it? Throughout human history, marriage has always been understood to mean the union of a man and a woman, because that is the only way to bring children into the world. The Bible says in Genesis 1 that God created male and female, that in marriage they are to “be one flesh,” and that they are to “be fruitful and multiply.” Obviously, this could never be true of any homosexual relationship, which makes “same-sex marriage” the ultimate oxymoron.
When Kim Davis began refusing to issue marriage licenses, both to same-sex and to opposite-sex couples,four couples represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Davis (Miller v. Davis). The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky ordered Davis to start issuing marriage licenses, including to same-sex couples. Her lawyers filed an application with the Supreme Court, in order to have the lower court’s order put on hold while she pursued an appeal, but the application was denied.Davis continued to defy the court order and refused to issue marriage licenses, claiming that she was acting “under God’s authority.”
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