Consider this: Pace v. Alabama, 106 U.S. 583 (1883), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court affirmed that Alabama's anti-miscegenation statute was constitutional. This ruling was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1964 in McLaughlin v. Florida and in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia.
Issues of conscience are not as simple as the media would have you believe. Life just isn't that simple. It took the SUPREME COURT 81 years before they decided that interracial marriage was legal. That is, generations of the "best" legal minds agreed that it wasn't. In all fairness, we are entitled to ask, where they really our "best " legal minds? I think not, they were ordinary at best.
Also consider how long it took for this current court to say that gay marriage is legal. For all but the last 3 months of Kim's life, the Supreme Court had stood totally silent on gay marriage. President Obama, her choice for president, spent most of his presidency with his finger in the wind, staying noncommittal to the very end. Since the founding of America, the country itself has stood in outright opposition to gay marriage. Even after the court decision, doubts remained, because the court did not vote 9-0, or 8-1, instead it voted 5-4, once again indicating that our "best" legal minds maybe not be all that great after all. From Kim's perspective, 4 of the 9 unelected justices agreed with her.
The American collective I mentioned above includes not only millions of citizens, it also includes Presidents, Senators, Governors, House Members, etc. The American collective took hundreds of years to accept gay marriage, so, am I going to get my knickers in a twist because this not so bright member of our society needs a little bit longer? -- No. Can America hold it's head high by putting her in prison. Again, no. If anything, it's a sign of how far we still have to go. America claims that due process is the legal alter on which we worship, but there is no due process when being held in contempt of court. There is no process to question if the court has acted legally. She is in jail without ever having been charged or convicted of a crime. She is in jail because a judge said "do as I command or go to jail." To my ear, that's got a slightly fascist ring to it.
The American collective I mentioned above includes not only millions of citizens, it also includes Presidents, Senators, Governors, House Members, etc. The American collective took hundreds of years to accept gay marriage, so, am I going to get my knickers in a twist because this not so bright member of our society needs a little bit longer? -- No. Can America hold it's head high by putting her in prison. Again, no. If anything, it's a sign of how far we still have to go. America claims that due process is the legal alter on which we worship, but there is no due process when being held in contempt of court. There is no process to question if the court has acted legally. She is in jail without ever having been charged or convicted of a crime. She is in jail because a judge said "do as I command or go to jail." To my ear, that's got a slightly fascist ring to it.
There is a reason we say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. America is socially backwards, and always has been, and likely will be for the foreseeable future. This years crop of Republican candidates is a pretty good indication that the future is not particularly bright. As long as we continue to plant carrots America is going to get carrots. Kim Davis is the fruit of America's carefully nurtured backwardness. It's a little too late to demand that she be an apple.
