Remember Kim Davis of Kentucky? For those who managed to push he hypocritical, bigoted antis out of their minds she’s back in the news again. And again for all the wrong reasons but this time the news is worth celebrating. The former County Clerk who lost her job and was successfully prosecuted (naturally, she’s a Trumpkin) appealed and she lost so she took it all the way to SCOTUS. Who issued the stock one liner notice of the petitioner’s claim being denied. As Chris Farley’s character in Tommy Boy said “That’s gonna leave a mark.”
Various outlets have reported on this but it was seeing a headline in my feed from Fox News and their story that I learned about Davis’ judicial whupping. I’m sure there are RWNJ news outlets expressing outrage today. However to my surprise Fox played it straight, sticking to the facts of the case and plainly stating the first and most important one – Davis’ appeal was denied ‘Cert’ (agreement to hear the case) in the standard unsigned one line notice the Court’s Clerk typically issues. Sometimes one or more Justices will issue a short opinion explaining why they believe the case should have been heard but not this time.
I find that significant because as the linked article notes three of the current Justices wrote dissents to the Obergefell opinion that legalized same-sex marriage. I specifically recall Thomas’ dissent, in part because he dug into precedent and how the Court shouldn’t give it all that much weight. He sure as hell didn’t think Obergefell had been around long enough. However his opinion quite clearly said there was ONE precedent the Court should respect – Loving v Virginia. That decision legalized inter-racial marriage nationwide. Thomas as we know is a black man who married a white woman. He’s a hypocritical P.O.S. and I’m willing to bet he’s drafted an opinion he’s shown to his clerks over the years that would overturn Loving AFTER he is dead and buried!
What’s significant is that it only take four Justices to vote to grant a case Cert. Assuming Roberts, Alito and Thomas held their ground (although I think Roberts might be less firm than the other two nowdays) they only needed to draft one more, one of Trump’s three appointees to hear the case. And they couldn’t get it! Not even one, much less a second they’d need to do what the first three would seem to want to do which is overturn Obergefell. Perhaps Gorsuch, Kavanaugh or Barrett told Roberts something like ‘For now I’ll go along but you’ll have to find someone else to actually vote to overturn Obergefell.’ If all three told him pretty much that same thing I can see why Roberts would tell an outraged Thomas and Alito forget about it. Just keep your mouths shut and maybe someday the time will be right.
As for Davis, I guess she can still try and make a living as a martyr. Hey, if she still lives in Kentucky she can probably get enough donations for her cause to keep a roof over her head and food on the table. But her conviction stands. Not that she can get back time served but she won’t be able to avoid that $250k plus fine. I for one don’t feel the least bit sorry for her. If her lawyers weren’t working pro-bono she’s about to get a brutal lesson in what happens when lawyers spend a small fortune pressing your case and lose. They might have thought if they got her conviction overturned they’d wind up with a HUGE payout from a civil lawsuit back there in Kentucky. And judgements against progressive organizations that criticized her during the whole matter. Nope. No big payout and I’ll bet Davis has no way (or prospects to do do) to pay her lawyers.
Davis made it her mission to defend what she called the sanctity of marriage which is more than a little ironic given her personal history with the institution of marriage. Take a look at the timeline in the title pic. In case the lettering of the title of this piece obscures it near the bottom of the timeline it notes she divorced husband #3 (who fathered her kids while she was cheating on him while married to hubby #1) and RE-married hubby #2. Cheating on a spouse and fathering children with a lover, and multiple divorces and marriages. Quite the poster child for ‘Sanctity of Marriage’ wouldn’t you say? As the meme in the title pic notes her actions aren’t part of what the bible she claims should reign supreme frowns upon such things!
Yet Kim Davis, who anointed herself as defender of morality and ‘traditional’ marriage, at least in the country in Kentucky where she’d managed to become County Clerk refused to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. It violated her religious beliefs she said. Well, a look at her personal life/marriage history would have ‘traditional’ marriage RWNJ self-professed Christian goobers wanting to make her a poster child, but Hypocrisy would be happy to give her a turn. What turned all this from a nasty, bigoted moment into a BFD is that as County Clerk Davis wouldn’t simply step aside and led one of her employees process the application and issue the license!
If like me you have a mean streak about such people Davis’s odds were never good but she had more than a passing chance to get her conviction overturned on the First Amendment grounds that were the main focus of her appeal. This is after all a SCOTUS packed with conservatives that have expanded religious protections. Well, so long as the religion being protected is Christian. However Davis and her lawyers just HAD to push her hobby-horse and rather than mention the same-sex marriage issue as little as possible made it into a a specific request for SCOTUS to consider amidst the broader case”
Though Davis’s appeal centered largely on First Amendment issues and questions of religious protection, her lawyers also requested that the Supreme Court consider overturning the 5-4 ruling in Obergefell, or the 2015 decision that granted same-sex couples the constitutional right to marry.
It is time for a “for a course correction” on Obergefell, her lawyers argued.
I could be wrong but with so many other hot-button cases on the docket and his legacy already being shredded Roberts just didn’t have the stomach for this fight. Had Davis’ appeal stuck to only religious grounds perhaps the Court would have taken up the case to fortify CHRISTIAN workers (even government officials) “right” to refuse service to people ‘because it was against their religion.’ Again I emphasize they only would protect ‘Christians.’ But no, Davis and her lawyers had to shove not just the religious objection she had but Obergefell itself in their face they took a pass.
It’s good news. For the time being but like so many ugly things like the Klan, or Rudy G. (who just got himself his pardon) it will keep popping up. The war isn’t over, but this battle has been won by the good guys and it might be a while before another one comes along. Let’s hope so, and specifically when it does the makeup of SCOTUS will have shifted away from the Federalist Society Fascist dominated political organ it’s become.
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Someone with her well storied background wittering on about the ‘sanctity of marriage’ ?
What was that saying about people living in glass houses throwing things?