Kentucky’s Kim Davis, still fighting against gay marriage, loses another legal

Rowan County clerk Kim Davis was briefly jailed earlier this year after she directly defied court orders by blocking marriage licenses for same-sex couples. She also had repeatedly urged current governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat, to remove clerk names from the form or provide another type of relief so she would not violate her Apostolic Christian beliefs.

Matt Bevin, meeting with the media on Friday, said he wouldn’t release his taxes now that he is governor-elect.

He also said he is already working on a way to move Kentuckians off Kynect, the state health insurance exchange, to the federal insurance exchange.

“(Kynect) adds nothing of value”, Bevin said. “We are going to do right by the people of the commonwealth”.

On Thursday, Davis lost a bid to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to delay issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

Ditto said because Bevin has a crowded schedule the availability is not likely to last very long. “It is a redundancy that we as taxpayers in this state are paying for twice”. The governor-elect said he would begin announcing his cabinet next week, starting with his general counsel and chief of staff.

But the decommissioning process will be complicated and costly – state officials have estimated shutting down kynect could cost upwards of $20 million, money the state would have to repay the federal government, which financed the startup.

Davis’ attorneys have appealed that expanded order several times, arguing that the mandate to issue licenses should apply only to the four couples who filed suit.

Staver was excited to hear the election results for Kentucky.

Since Kentucky implemented the federal health law in 2013 by executive order of Beshear, about 400,000 Kentuckians have enrolled in Medicaid and another 100,000 purchased private health plans through kynect.

Bevin said the state can’t afford the new program.

Bevin met Friday with Democratic and Republican legislative leaders.