Monday, September 7, 2015

"A SYSTEM IN WHICH EACH CONSCIENCE IS A LAW UNTO ITSELF"

For me, the most compelling reason that the Rowan County Clerk, Kim Davis, should go back to jail, if she interferes with a court order, comes from the majority opinion, of one of the Supreme Court's arch conservatives, Justice Scalia, where it is quoted:

 "Just as a society that believes in the negative protection accorded to the press by the First Amendment is likely to enact laws that affirmatively foster the dissemination of the printed word, so also a society that believes in the negative protection afforded to religious belief can be expected to be solicitous of that value in its legislation as well. To be sure, requiring claims for religious exemptions to be vetted through the legislative process might put less popular religions at a disadvantage. But the Court held that this situation was preferable to the relative anarchy that would result from 'a system in which each conscience is a law unto itself.'"

Judging from the urgency that Ms. Davis lawyers expressed in wanting their client released, I do believe she has changed her mind about there being any romance attached to being incarcerated, and will allow her deputies to continue to provide marriage licenses to same sex couples.

3 comments:

  1. Wait a minute ... wait a minute! Was Scalia speaking American? Sounds like English ... a foreign tongue

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  2. He reads and writes it. Not sure he know how to speak it though. Ask Sarah.

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  3. Kim Davis claimed she was jailed for practicing her religious beliefs. But here's the truth of that matter:

    "No one's being jailed for practicing her religion. Someone's being jailed for using the government to force others to practice her religion."

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