Lawful Compliance

A county clerk from Kentucky was jailed recently for refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple.  She was jailed with no opportunity to post bond.  She said she refused because her religious belief was that marriage must only be between a man and a woman. 

There clearly is a conflict between her right to practice her religious beliefs and compliance with the law.  Would an elected county official who refused to comply for religious reasons have been treated the same if they had not been Christian?  We bend over backwards for Muslims and atheists, but Christians continually have their First Amendment rights violated. 

I question the law because I question the Supreme Court legislating instead of just enforcing the Constitution, as they should.  I cannot understand why both Congress and the states allow their laws to be ignored and their power taken away. 

Personally, I think the county clerk should have assigned the duty of issuing marriage licenses to another staff member if it was against her religious beliefs.  This may be a cop out, but it would have complied with the law.  She also could have resigned, but this would not have given her a platform to express her beliefs.

All members of government, both elected and appointed, should comply with the law or be forced out of office.  This needs to be applied at all levels of office and not just the low level of a county clerk.  Why should the political elite be exempt?  Maybe President Nixon was right when he said “It’s not illegal if a President does it.”  President Obama has taken this philosophy to a new level of arrogance.  

High-level officials should be held to a higher standard and not given a pass.  Not one President since Eisenhower has enforced our immigration laws.  A President does not have the right to choose which laws he wants to enforce.  If we held our Presidents to the same standard as that Kentucky county clerk, they would all have been impeached and/or jailed.  Why do we accept and allow this double standard for the political elite? 

Congress makes our laws.  The President enforces those laws.  The Supreme Court’s job is to enforce the Constitution.  Our founding fathers knew what they were doing when they set up these three branches of government.  Why do we allow the political elite to ignore the rules and hold themselves above the law?