It initially appeared Kim Davis had finally come to her senses and ended her misguided refusal to issue any marriage licenses in protest of the Supreme Court making marriage equality the law of the land. But any chance of that ended late yesterday when Davis filed a motion saying the courts had failed to protect her from “irreparable injury” by not letting her opt out of issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples–conveniently leaving out that for two months, she had refused to issue ANY marriage licenses at all. Unless I’m very wrong, this motion all but announced that Davis will stop issuing marriage licenses altogether when she returns to work on Monday–meaning she could be going right back to jail as early as Tuesday.
For much of this week, there was a real possibility that things could have gotten very ugly if and when federal judge David Bunning held Davis in contempt once again. On Wednesday, Oath Keepers, a far-right outfit of retired and active military servicemen and law enforcement personnel, offered to serve as a “security detail” to protect Davis from being taken into custody by U. S. Marshals if Bunning ordered her back to jail. Oath Keepers is best known for its adamant refusal to enforce laws that its members consider unconstitutional, and contended that Bunning’s order remanding her to jail was such an order.
However, in what may have been its first sensible move since this fiasco began, Davis’ legal team at Liberty Counsel told Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes that Davis didn’t want a security detail. Rhodes told his colleagues that in accordance with Liberty Counsel’s wishes, Oath Keepers has issued a “stand-down” and will not be “deploying” to Davis’ hometown of Morehead to protect her.
Liberty Counsel really had no choice, given what is known about how Oath Keepers planned to “protect” Davis, as well as its past history. In a conference call with Denny Peyman, the former sheriff of Jackson County, Kentucky; Rhodes contended that the Rowan County sheriff had a legal duty to “intercede” and stop U. S. Marshals from taking Davis to jail last week–and if he didn’t act, Governor Steve Beshear should have done so. He then ominously declared, “If the sheriff, who should be interceding, is not going to do his job and the governor is not going to do the governor’s job of interceding, then we’ll do it.”
Peyman, who is an open and unashamed Oath Keeper, said that Rhodes needed to have a chat with the Rowan County sheriff and “educate” him on his duty to intervene. Most sheriffs, Peyman said, are afraid to “step out” on things like this. Peyman added that if this had happened in his county, he would have stopped the arrest.
For those who don’t know, Oath Keepers has racked up a sordid history since its founding in 2009. The group has gained infamy for roaming the streets of Ferguson, Missouri with assault weapons last fall, and putting in another appearance last month on the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s murder. It played a key role in rogue Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s standoff with the federal government. The vice president of its New York chapter thinks that we can disobey gun laws because God says so, and even suggested that the Second Amendment doesn’t allow for gun registration laws. And on, and on.
Had Liberty Counsel chief counsel Mat Staver accepted Oath Keepers’ services, calling it irresponsible would have been being extremely kind. Indeed, given that Oath Keepers had announced in capital letters that it would prevent Davis from being taken to jail, Staver no doubt knew that he would have had a lot of explaining to do had any violence occurred. Don’t expect any more outbreaks of common sense from Staver, though. Remember, he and his team actually advised Davis to continue refusing to issue marriage licenses to anyone, even though it had the effect of making straight couples collateral damage. When Benjamin Franklin said that a stopped clock is right twice a day, he probably had situations like this in mind.
