morehead, ky. Clerk returns to work after jail stint

Associated Press

MOREHEAD, Ky.

Kim Davis returned to work Monday for the first time since she was jailed for defying a federal court and announced that she would no longer block her deputies from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Standing at the courthouse door, the Kentucky county clerk read from a handwritten statement and explained in a quivering voice that she had been faced with a “seemingly impossible choice” between following her conscience and losing her freedom.

So she agreed to an “emergency stopgap” concession, her lawyer later said: She did not stop her deputy clerk from issuing licenses edited to remove her name, her title and her authorization. But, she said, she had “grave concerns” that the licenses would be invalid without her blessing.

The only couple to receive a license Monday walked into a surreal scene. Shannon and Carmen Wampler-Collins squeezed through a throng of reporters and protesters and stood at the counter, microphones bobbing above their heads.

Deputy clerk Brian Mason, who began issuing licenses when Davis was hauled to jail, worked behind a sign anointing him the “marriage license deputy.” He has issued a dozen licenses since Davis was jailed last Tuesday, eight of them to same-sex couples, and has pledged to continue issuing them despite his boss’s wishes.

Hecklers shouted “coward” at him from the side of room. Mason, a 38-year-old former retail worker who unwittingly fell into the middle of the firestorm, smiled at them and turned back to his work.

“It’s a little crazy,” said Mason, who’s worked for Davis for a year and a half, “but I try not to let it bother me.”

One protester waved a Bible and shouted. Elizabeth Johnston from Ohio screamed, “Don’t let Kim’s five days in jail be in vain.”

Marriage-equality supporters tried to drown them out: “Love has won,” they chanted.

The scene dragged on for a half-hour as Davis remained in her office, the door closed and the blinds drawn. Mason went into her office three times, though he attributed the holdup to printer and software problems.

When he finally finished the license, he handed it to the couple and shook their hands. The document, a template issued by the state and filled out by each clerk, had been altered. Where the name of the clerk and the county is typically entered, it said instead “pursuant to federal court order.”