Kentucky gov removes names of clerks from marriage licenses

Davis took steps to remove her name and office from the forms after she was released from jail, and a deputy clerk has issued licences on her behalf.

“County clerks should not have to compromise their consciences”, Bevin said, after a federal judge jailed Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis for contempt of court following her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.

According to the order, the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives will issue a revised marriage form to all county clerk offices without their name appearing on them.

They were the protests heard around the nation and it happened right in Rowan County after the county clerk Kim Davis refused to sign marriage licenses for gay couples, citing her religious beliefs.

Davis repeatedly urged then-Governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat, to remove clerk names from the form or provide other relief so she would not violate her religious beliefs.

Since the Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, the issue of religious liberties has emerged as a key sticking point. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, ordained a southern Baptist pastor, was arm in arm with Davis when she left jail.

“Kim Davis wasn’t looking for this fight”, said Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council, which gave the 49-year-old county clerk its Cost of Discipleship Award earlier this year.

“The requirement that the county clerk’s name appear on marriage licenses is prescribed by Kentucky law and is not subject to unilateral change by the governor – conceded by the previous administration in court filings”.

Bevin also rescinded Beshear’s executive order that granted voting rights to non-violent felons who have completed their sentences.

Kentucky’s new Republican governor, Matt Bevin, has been in charge for less than a month, and he’s already made good on one of his campaign promises.

“Bevin’s order relieves executive branch agencies and vendors of the obligation to comply with the higher minimum wage”, the Governor release states. But she said simply telling others about her faith was not “going to make anybody believe anything”. Governor Bevin supported the civil rights restoration order… “We encourage state lawmakers to take executive orders out of this completely by passing a statewide minimum wage increase to $10.10 an hour”.

And in two years, Davis will be up for re-election in what is surely to be one of the most publicized county clerk races in decades.