Kim Davis is the Kentucky county clerk who was recently jailed by a federal judge for her refusing to violate her Christian conscience by issuing marriage licenses under her name and by her authority for same-sex unions. One of the chief arguments made against her conduct is that public officials cannot refuse to do the duties of their job.
So as I was researching this story, I found this excerpt, from an Associated Press article shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling ordering recognition of same-sex marriage in June, rather interesting:
It began in March 2014 when Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway -- a former U.S. Senate candidate who is now running for governor -- decided not to appeal the initial federal court decision that overturned Kentucky's same sex marriage ban. During an emotional news conference at the Capitol, he said that to appeal would be to defend discrimination.
However, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear later overruled Conway and hired private attorneys to defend the state's ban in federal court.
"His job as governor was to take the emotion out of it and say, 'What's the rule of law going to be?" said Colmon Elridge, Beshear's longtime aide. "And the only way to do that was to get a final ruling from the Supreme Court."
. . .
Conway, meanwhile, has faced critics who suggest he ignored his duties as attorney general. While Republican nominee for governor Matt Bevin criticized the Supreme Court's ruling, he especially targeted Conway, who he said "abandoned his oath of office." Bevin said Conway's "failure to do his job ... disqualifies him from being elected to the office of governor."
"How can voters trust him not to break his oath again?" Bevin said.
Whitney Westerfield, the Republican nominee for attorney general, also blasted Conway in his reaction to the court's decision.
"Unlike Attorney General Jack Conway, who failed in his responsibility to fight for the laws of this commonwealth, as Attorney General I will act to uphold the law even as it runs counter to my personal beliefs," Westerfield said in a news release.
Did anyone try to put Attorney General Conway in jail for refusing to do his job?
