Meet The Anti-Gay Lawyer Fighting For Defiant Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis

Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver
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The attorney representing a Kentucky county clerk who has defied several federal court orders to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples has a long history of making anti-LGBT statements.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed last week for contempt of court, is being represented by the conservative Christian law firm Liberty Counsel, although it’s unclear whether Davis approached the firm or vice versa. Davis is the latest and most high-profile in a string of clients Liberty Counsel has defended, from Alabama probate judges who also refused to grant same-sex marriage licenses to Scott Lively, the Massachusetts pastor at the center of a crimes against humanity lawsuit over his role in the persecution of gay Ugandans.

Attorney Mathew Staver and his wife, Anita, founded Liberty Counsel in 1989. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, added the law firm to its roster of anti-LGBT hate groups in 2014, citing the group’s belief that same-sex marriage will destroy the “bedrock of society” and its support for gay conversion therapy.

Staver himself went as far as to speak approvingly of tough anti-gay laws in foreign countries like Russia in a 2014 appearance on “Faith and Freedom” radio.

“They’re reaffirming marriage as one man and one woman,” Staver said at the time. “Russia is one of those countries recently that did that. Latin American countries have reaffirmed marriage as one man and one woman. Then other countries around the world are reaffirming marriage as one man and one woman and rejecting this radicalized homosexual agenda.”

The lawyer later dodged a question from Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) about those remarks in a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on religious freedom laws, as Raw Story pointed out. Asked whether he advocated for laws similar to Russia’s anti-gay measures, Staver told Cohen that he merely was concerned about Christians being forced to participate in something that violated their religious beliefs.

“So you’re not in favor of the Russian antigay laws and what I read was wrong?” Cohen asked.

“I don’t know what you read,” Staver responded. “I haven’t spoken on the Russian laws.”

Staver’s takes on subjects including Mitt Romney and LGBT history month have also been eyebrow-raising. He blamed the former Massachusetts governor’s unwillingness to embrace social issues for the legalization of gay marriage in four states, and called public schools’ celebration of LGBT figures in history a “sexual assault on our children.”

Most recently, Staver compared Davis’ plight to that of Jews in Nazi Germany in an interview on Christian radio network VCY America. He argued last week that until a Supreme Court decision legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in June, it wasn’t in a county clerk’s job description to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple.

“Does that mean that if you’re Christian, don’t apply here?” Staver said in the interview, which was flagged by Right Wing Watch. “What happened in Nazi Germany, what happened there first, they removed the Jews from government public employment. Then they stopped patronizing them in their private businesses. Then they continued to stigmatize them. Then they were the ‘problems.’ Then they killed them.”

“The fact of the matter is, she has a right to this employment and you don’t lose your constitutional liberties just because you’re employed by the government,” he added.

Davis’ extremely high-profile case has also invited questions about whether the Liberty Counsel is using the clerk to either advance an anti-LGBT agenda or otherwise enrich itself.

In an email interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal, Staver would not say what advice he gave Davis prior to the Thursday hearing where she refused to agree to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, landing herself in a jail cell for contempt of court. Staver did say that Liberty Counsel “would never counsel a client to violate the law,” however.

A reporter also asked Staver directly in a Friday press conference whether Liberty Counsel was profiting off Davis’ case.

“Do you ask that question of the ACLU?” he retorted.

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Notable Replies

  1. Ms Davis has a right to that employment? Only if she does the freakin’ job. What a maroon.

  2. Avatar for yehuda yehuda says:

    As far as I see, Ms. Davis’ right to her job is not in question. Nor is her “right” not to issue marriage licenses to single-sex couples. Where she crosses the line is her refusal to allow other workers in her office to issue licenses.

  3. “He argued last week that until a Supreme Court decision legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in June, it wasn’t in a county clerk’s job description to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple.”

    Sure it was, and is, in her job description. It said, and says, she would issue marriage licenses to the citizens in her jurisdiction. It doesn’t say heterosexual couples only. It just says citizens (or some other such appelation) and that includes everyone, which is exactly what SCOTUS said.

    “The fact of the matter is, she has a right to this employment and you don’t lose your constitutional liberties just because you’re employed by the government,"

    Well, actually you do. I don’t know about state jobs, but I know that when you sign up for a federal job there are several constitutional rights you give up. The only one that bothered was the inability to engage in partisan politics. I could vote, but could not actively participate in partisan politics. But I willingly signed the oath of office because I actually agree that government employees should remain publicaly apolitical so as not to give the impression that they represent their employer and/or their employer’s opinions.

    I wonder what was in her oath of office. I feel sure there was a clause something to the effect that she would diligiently do her job according to the law of the land.

    Believe it or not, there are really people who run for and hold office because they actually want to serve their fellow citizens, not just to serve their own self (and selfish) interests. Too bad there are so many like Davis who are only concerned with their own schtick [sp.].

  4. Plus, if you worked for the Court system, you could be forced to attend Christmas Parties and sing religious carols even if you were Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Buddhist, or any other religion. What’s more, it isn’t just the employee who gives up those rights, it is their entire family.

    Staver and Liberty Counsel have been capitalizing on the pain and suffering of LGBT people for a very long time now. They don’t care about Kim Davis. She can rot in jail for all they care. The thing is, they probably expected her to get fined instead of jailed, and they could have used the money from the fundraising to pay the fine to line their own pockets.

  5. The Right Wingnuttery, from the obvious demagogues and grifters like Huckster Huckabee to the Rightie Fundie shyster lawyers like Staver, will continue to do their kabuki dance for dollars, attention and political gain until they wring all they can from this travesty.
    “If you don’t allow me to impose my religious beliefs on you in my public service job, then you are persecuting me!”
    What a winning argument!

    http://forums-cdn.appleinsider.com/6/63/350x700px-LL-63930ce3_dead_horse.gif

    They will eventually be consigned to the garbage bin of history along with the supporters of Lester Maddox and George Wallace who screeched “Segregation Now…Segregation Forever” in the 60’s . The Kim Davises and her supporters will be a loathsome and depraved footnote in the history of the fight for equality, nothing more.

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