RWNJ Kentucky County Clerk Ordered Jailed For Contempt Of Court Over Refusal To Issue Gay Marriage Licenses

Katherine Krueger and Tierney Sneed at TPM:

Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue gay marriage licenses, has been found in contempt of court and taken into federal custody.

According to AP, U.S. District Judge David Bunning said Thursday that Davis would be held in jail until she complied with the previous court orders to begin granting the marriage licenses.

...

And thus it must be in a society where the rule of law prevails over the rule of wo/man. If people start choosing which judges' orders they obey and which they do not, the required balance between freedom and order in society will quickly collapse in favor of wanton freedom, and the laws of the land will become utterly unenforceable.

Someone could do Kim Davis a favor by explaining the workings of civil disobedience to her: the person engaging in civil disobedience expects to go to jail for what s/he does; it cannot be otherwise, because s/he is violating the law. If Ms. Davis wants to decide in her own mind what the law means and act accordingly, but not be jailed for her lawbreaking, then she is asserting that she is some kind of queen, or at least a princess: not in America, baby, not in America.

Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz had some interesting things to say in Krueger and Sneed's article (which you really should read before proceeding)...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) also rushed to Davis' defense: "I think it’s absurd to put someone in jail for exercising their religious liberties," he said on CNN.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) issued a statement calling for "every lover of liberty to stand for Kim Davis." “Kim Davis should not be in jail. We are a country founded on Judeo-Christian values, founded by those fleeing religious oppression and seeking a land where we could worship God and live according to our faith, without being imprisoned for doing so," he said.

(Sigh! the RWNJs always require explanation of the simplest matters of rights and responsibilities.)

Sen. Paul, it's not for exercising her religious liberties that Davis is being jailed: those are liberties of belief and expression, not of action in contravention to the law, especially as in this case where the law couldn't possibly be clearer after the Supreme Court's refusal to support Ms. Davis's position.

And Sen. Cruz, I am at least as American as you are, and the nation I fight for is NOT "founded on Judeo-Christian values" because though I am religious, I am not a Christian, whether you like that fact or not. And I'm pretty sure you don't, you un-American bastard.

Just for good measure, Mike Huckabee chimed in:

... former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said, "Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubts about the criminalization of Christianity in this country."

No, ex-Gov. Huckabee, it "removes all doubts about the criminalization of" criminal behavior, and most of us don't have any problem with that. Sit down and STFU!

‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like’ Sharia Christianity Imposed By A Court?

All the complaints one sees about attempts to establish Sharia law in the US pale before actual attempts to enforce Bible-thumping fundamentalist Christianity, such as this one imposed by a state judge in Texas:

Texas Judge: Marry Your Girlfriend Or Go To Jail

By Caitlin Cruz [TPM]...

A Texas judge told one young couple in July to get hitched or have the bridegroom face 15 days in jail for a misdemeanor charge, according to KLTV.

Smith County Judge Randall Rogers told Josten Bundy, 20, to marry his girlfriend, Elizabeth Jaynes, 19, within 30 days or go to jail for 15 days after Bundy punched Jaynes' ex-boyfriend twice in the jaw, the television station reported.

The probation agreement also included writing Bible verses and getting counseling, in addition to the mandatory marriage, according KLTV.

...

Awwww, gimme a break. Even if one assumes, reasonably enough in a county halfway between Dallas, TX and Shreveport, LA, that both members of the couple are Christian, it is still a violation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution for a state judge to sentence the man to copying Christian Bible verses and engaging in a religious ceremony. No criminal court judge in America has the authority to assign religious behavior to a convict; that violates the Establishment clause... end of story.

That said, marriage is surely the least of the problems that young couple faces... I'd respond with part of one of my favorite Billy Joel songs:

They will tell you you can't sleep alone
   In a strange place
Then they'll tell you you can't sleep
   With somebody else
Ah, but sooner or later you sleep
   In your own space
Either way it's okay
   You wake up with yourself

WTF Is The Matter With America Today?

masaccio at FDL tells us what the religious RWNJs and other nutjobs truly believe:

...

It’s a mirror image of the US. The “Other” is the problem. It isn’t the unjust distribution of wealth, it isn’t the exploitation of the worker by the filthy rich, it isn’t unequal schools, it isn’t poverty or any other structural condition. It’s witches. It’s demons. It’s unholiness. It’s impurity. It’s smoke.

It isn’t fixable. The most you can hope for is bottling up that rage and fear in fewer and fewer people. Instead the media stokes those fires. Self-ordained ministers tell people that it’s sin that cause fires and floods and earthquakes and eclipses. Rage freaks like O’Reilly and Limbaugh and the incomparably stupid Hannity tell their listeners that the end times are coming. Politicians like Lindsey Graham shriek that terrorists are coming to kill them while they sleep. These pre-moderns are now in control of both the House and Senate, and the Supreme Court.

...

No fxxking kidding! These people may or may not hearken back to the actual Dark Ages, but as masaccio said, they damned surely missed the Enlightenment altogether. Yet they have every intention of taking it away from those of us who didn't miss it, and they have the money backing them to do the taking. Welcome to today's America... where the medieval get medieval on your buttocks.

Your Hobby Lobby Reading For Today

• masaccio at FDL, The Political Decision in Hobby Lobby (be sure to read the comments)
• Leonard Pitts, Jr. at Miami Herald, Bad day for women’s rights, reproductive health

This decision will impact, wholly negatively, literally millions of women of reproductive age. And that's not counting its influence on the Supreme Court's future interpretation of the distinction between "freedom of religion" and "an establishment of religion." Apparently, to Just‑Us Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas, surprisingly along with Just‑Us Breyer, the former concept perversely equates to the latter. Handmaid's Tale, here we come.