Kim Davis is going to seek re-election as county clerk in Rowan County, Ky.
Big deal, you say? Sure it is. Here’s why.
Rowan is the county clerk who made a big-time name for herself after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 to legalize gay marriage in all 50 of our states. It declared that the 14th Amendment’s “equal protection clause” meant that gay couples are entitled to be married because they are entitled to equal protection under the law.
Davis didn’t agree with that. She said that her religious beliefs wouldn’t allow her to sign off on marriage certificates involving gay couples. The court told her to do her job; she refused and then spent a few days in the slammer on a contempt of court charge. The issue was resolved when the courts ruled Davis didn’t have to sign the certificates, but could allow her deputies to do so.
During all that tumult, Davis changed her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. So now she wants to be re-elected to a second term.
I normally wouldn’t give a royal rat’s rear end about Kim Davis, except that I spent a good bit of time on this blog commenting on how she violated the oath of office she took.
It’s that oath — and her violation of it — that make her unfit for re-election.
This campaign under normal circumstances wouldn’t command any attention outside of Rowan County. It will, because Davis made such a spectacle of herself by protesting the high court’s decision on gay marriage.
Davis took an oath office to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution and to obey the law of the land. She failed to do her job by injecting religion into a secular political office. The oath she took doesn’t allow her to use her faith as a dodge.
That is how her political opponent ought to frame his or her campaign against her.
So, with that Kim Davis is going to run for re-election. I should resist the urge to follow how this will play out.
But I won’t.