{"id":58846,"date":"2015-09-04T09:57:50","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T14:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?p=58846"},"modified":"2015-09-03T08:00:54","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T13:00:54","slug":"scalia-and-the-kentucky-clerk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2015\/09\/04\/scalia-and-the-kentucky-clerk\/","title":{"rendered":"Scalia and the Kentucky Clerk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I agree: if you are employed by the Federal or State Government, you are obligated to its ways and laws. The same could apply to ministers who act as civil authorities in marriage.<\/p>\n

Jonathan H. Adler<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Davis has a right to observe and adhere to her religious beliefs, but she does not have a right to her job as county clerk. The latter obligates her to follow federal law, including the applicable judgments of federal courts, and it is now the law of the land that the Constitution bars state governments from refusing to recognize same-sex marriages on equal terms with opposite-sex marriages. If, as Davis claims, her religious convictions bar her from issuing such a marriage license, she should resign.<\/p>\n

Now Scalia has not, to my knowledge, said anything directly about Davis\u2019s actions, but he has addressed the question of what public officials should do when their official obligations conflict with their religious conscience.\u00a0Writing in \u201cFirst Things\u201d in 2002<\/a>, Scalia explained that if he were to conclude that the death penalty is fundamentally immoral, he should no longer serve on the bench.<\/p>\n

[W]hile my views on the morality of the death penalty have nothing to do with how I vote as a judge, they have a lot to do with whether I can or should be a judge at all. To put the point in the blunt terms employed by Justice Harold Blackmun towards the end of his career on the bench, when he announced that he would henceforth vote (as Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall had previously done) to overturn all death sentences, when I sit on a Court that reviews and affirms capital convictions, I am part of \u201cthe machinery of death.\u201d My vote, when joined with at least four others, is, in most cases, the last step that permits an execution to proceed. I could not take part in that process if I believed what was being done to be immoral. . . .<\/p>\n

[I]n my view the choice for the judge who believes the death penalty to be immoral is resignation, rather than simply ignoring duly enacted, constitutional laws and sabotaging death penalty cases. He has, after all, taken an oath to apply the laws and has been given no power to supplant them with rules of his own. Of course if he feels strongly enough he can go beyond mere resignation and lead a political campaign to abolish the death penalty\u201d and if that fails, lead a revolution. But rewrite the laws he cannot do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Davis is in a similar position. Her official position obligates her to take part in the state\u2019s licensing and recognition of marriages. Insofar as the state\u2019s definition of an acceptable marriage differs from her own, Davis is obligated to follow the state\u2019s rule so long as she maintains her current office.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I agree: if you are employed by the Federal or State Government, you are obligated to its ways and laws. The same could apply to ministers who act as civil authorities in marriage. Jonathan H. Adler: Davis has a right to observe and adhere to her religious beliefs, but she does not have a right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nScalia and the Kentucky Clerk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I agree: if you are employed by the Federal or State Government, you are obligated to its ways and laws. 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