New Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin on Tuesday ordered county clerks’ names removed from state marriage license forms at the center of a controversy involving Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed after refusing to issue licenses to gay couples.
Bevin had said shortly after his election last month — the only second Republican governor of Kentucky since 1971 — that he would change the forms that had drawn objections from Davis and some other clerks.
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
“To ensure that the sincerely held religious beliefs of all Kentuckians are honored, I took action to revise the clerk marriage license form,” Bevin said in a statement.
It was unclear what effect his executive order would have on Davis’ case.
She made headlines by refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, even after the US Supreme Court in June legalized same-sex matrimony across the nation.
Citing her Apostolic Christian beliefs defining marriage as a union exclusively reserved for heterosexual couples, Davis spent five days in jail for defying an order by US District Judge David Bunning to comply with the high court’s decision.
Her jailing drew international attention and demonstrations from both sides of the issue. Davis, 50, also briefly met Pope Francis in September in Washington during his US visit.
‘UNCERTAINTY’
Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union, representing couples who had sued Davis, said Bevin’s move only “added to the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over marriage licenses in Kentucky,” as clerk names are required by state law to appear on the licenses.
Mat Staver, a lawyer for Davis, called the governor’s action “a wonderful Christmas gift” allowing the county clerk to celebrate the holidays without having to choose between her faith and her job.
Davis took steps to remove her name and office from the forms after she was released from jail, and a deputy clerk has issued licenses on her behalf.
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.
She has also appealed Bunning’s orders to the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Bunning and the appeals court have repeatedly denied her stays in the case.
Beshear had said he had no authority to relieve county clerks of their statutory duties by executive order and that the state legislature could address the issue.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese