Kentucky
Appeal filed for ex-clerk who refused marriage licenses
ASHLAND, Ky. (AP) — Attorneys for a former Kentucky clerk who wouldn’t issue marriage licenses to two same-sex couples have appealed a federal court ruling that she violated the couples’ constitutional rights and might have to pay damages.
Kim Davis, former clerk of Rowan County, briefly went to jail in 2015 over her refusal, which she based on her belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
A jury trial will be needed to determine any damages the couples might be owed. A date was not set during a hearing Friday pending the appeal.
Michael Gartland, an attorney for plaintiffs David Ermold and David Moore, said Friday that he expects the trial will be held sometime next year.
“I will be seeking sanctions for filing this frivolous appeal,” Gartland said.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the law firm that represents Davis, said in a statement that she “is entitled to an accommodation based on her sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage.”
He said the case will now go to the Circuit Court of Appeals and added it has a “high potential” of reaching the Supreme Court.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning in Ashland wrote in his ruling last month that Davis “cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while performing her duties as an elected official.”
Davis, who bases her objection to same-sex marriage on her interpretation of her Christian faith, stopped issuing marriage licenses soon after the 2015 Supreme Court decision in which same-sex couples won the right to marry nationwide.
A judge ordered Davis to issue the licenses, and she was sued by gay and straight couples and spent five days in jail over her refusal.
She was released only after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form. The state legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.
Davis, a Republican, ultimately lost her bid for reelection in 2018. Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr. is now the county’s clerk.
Davis had argued that a legal doctrine called qualified immunity protected her from being sued for damages by couples Ermold and Moore as well as James Yates and Will Smith. The U.S. Supreme Court in October 2020 left in place a decision that allowed the lawsuit to move forward, declining to take the case.
Louisiana
Execution suit tossed because state can’t get drugs
BATON ROUGE (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a nearly decade-old lawsuit against executions in Louisiana, saying there’s nothing to challenge because the state can only get the required drugs as medicines.
State officials testified that manufacturers said they’d cut off medical supplies if the drugs were used to kill. U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick noted in her opinion.
Her ruling allows Jessie Hoffman and 10 inmates who later joined the lawsuit filed in December 2012 to file a new one if conditions change. The other inmates include Christopher Sepulvado, who was convicted of killing his 6-year-old stepson in 1992 after the boy came home from school with soiled underwear.
Hoffman’s attorney, Michael D. Rubenstein, told The Advocate last week that his team was reviewing the ruling handed down Wednesday. He and representatives with the Promise of Justice Initiative declined further comment, the newspaper reported.
Louisiana should now join neighboring states in finding ways to execute people sentenced to death, state Attorney General Jeff Landry said Thursday. Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas all have executed people in the last two years, he said in a news release.
The judge noted that since a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, and Arkansas have executed at least 20 people using a drug called midazolam.
Hoffman’s lawsuit accused the state of refusing to let him know how it planned to kill him. At the time, Louisiana wasn’t able to get one of the three drugs listed in a 2010 execution protocol.
Louisiana has since added other drugs. But officials testified they can only get the drugs for health care — the companies would stop selling them to the prison system if they were used for executions, Dick noted.
The state has not carried out an execution since Gerald Bordelon was voluntarily put to death in 2010 for the murder of his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Courtney LeBlanc, the newspaper noted. Louisiana’s last previous execution was in 2002.
From 2014 to 2018, both sides agreed to hold off executions for all inmates on death row.
“Facts and issues involved in this proceeding continue to be in a fluid state,” lawyers for the state wrote. “It would be a waste of resources and time to litigate this matter at present.”
Washington
Judge: Navy SEALs can’t use state parks for training
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A judge has ruled that the Navy SEALs won’t be able to use Washington State Parks as training grounds.
In January 2021, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission voted 4-3 to approve the Navy’s proposal to use up to 28 parks for training purposes for the elite units, where SEALs would emerge from the water under the cover of darkness and disappear into the environment.
The Northwest News Network reports the decision rankled many recreationalists, who said during public comments they would avoid these areas for fear that SEALs would watch them without the knowledge or consent of visitors.
On Friday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon said the commission’s decision was illegal and outside its purview, which includes the protection and enhancement of parks.
In addition, Dixon ruled the commission violated the State Environmental Policy Act by not considering fully how the trainings could deter visitors.
Opponents of the decision often said the presence of out-of-sight SEAL trainees would incite a “creepiness factor,” removing a sense of calm often found in nature.
Dixon said he couldn’t come up with a better legal term than that.
“It is creepy,” he said.
In earlier public hearings, Navy officials said Washington’s natural landscapes provide critical cold water training for SEALs. Washington’s coastlines and currents pose challenges to SEAL trainees that are difficult to find elsewhere, said Warrant Officer Esteban Alvarado at a Nov. 19, 2020, public meeting, calling the region a critical component in training exercises.
The judge’s decision could be appealed.
