For what it’s worth, I think the federal court agrees with you. (So do I, but that’s definitely worth less.) The licences being issued here are being issued not on the authority of the clerk or her deputies but on the authority of the court, which has ordered the assistant to issue them. and to any objection that the Kentucky marriage statute doesn’t provide for the federal courts to authorise the issue of marriage licences, I think the court’s answer will be something like “the limitations of the Kentucky marriage statute can’t be allowed to deprive these couples of their right to the equal protection of the laws, and the court has made the order that it thinks necessary to prevent that happening”.
I’m sure that a clerks deputy can sign or rubber stamp the document in the County Clerks absence (vacation, illness, meetings, jail 
and such). There are hundreds of different types of documents that the Clerk and Recorder, record.
The issue is, I think, that the 3 SSM licenses where issued without any signature or stamp.
Since the judge talked to all 6 deputies in the office, and said ‘no shenanigans’ I could see the lack of a signature or stamp as contempt of court.
Let’s say that I went to get married, and the clerk issued me a license and told me it was a marriage license. Years later, on my death, my evil brother (disclosure: my brother’s awesome, not evil) my evil brother contested the marriage because the clerk had forgotten to sign the license.
Does anyone genuinely think that he’d succeed in contesting the marriage?
Terr - if a statute says that a particular person (as in a person holding a specified office) shall perform some duty, are you of the opinion that the duty may never be delegated to anyone else, including another official in the same office?
But it wasn’t delegated.
And what is your view of the supremacy clause of the Constitution? In your opinion, can individuals disregard settled Federal law?
What does that have to do with it? Are those gays who are getting marriage licenses in Rowan county marrying under federal law?
Is it your opinion that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges does not apply to Rowan county?
I’m sure they’re fine with it. They have their license, they will use that to get married, and their marriages will be recorded by the state.
Imagine having your drivers license challenged 20 years after it was issued because the guy who gave you the drivers test forgot to sign the test results. I think people over-estimate the power of “legal technicalities.” (“The law does not concern itself with trifles”)
De Minimis Non Curat Lex :
Latin: a common law principle whereby judges will not sit in judgment of extremely minor transgressions of the law.
Seems like a simple question. Do you think there are exceptions to the supremacy clause?
Gentlepersons, you are missing the point! Arguing over niggling points of legality, you fail to see the dread threat to the Republic from liberal activist judges. Once they figure out a way to reconcile* sharia* law with depraved liberal sexual license, there will be no stopping mullah Obama!
Wake up, America! Connect the dot!
Of course it does. And still the KY law applies. It was not followed in issuing the licenses after Davis was jailed. They were issued under KY law, not under any federal law.
No. Don’t see how that applies in this case. The licenses in question were issued under KY law, not under any federal law.
That’s not how deputies work. Reread the cite in post 15:
The mere fact of employing deputies delegates authority to them to perform the lawful duties of the officer.
If the deputies use that authority in a way the clerk doesn’t like, then she can bring sanctions against them–but their use of the authority in a way she doesn’t approve of doesn’t invalidate the actions they take with that authority.
If the result of the KY law is that same-sex couples cannot legally marry in Rowan county, then the KY law is null and void.
Exactly, except this Federal Judge was appointed by George W. Bush and is considered extremely conservative. The problem for the right wing crazies is that even their own kind of Judges aren’t buying what they’re selling. No wonder they’re freaking out.
If the KY law is null and void, then under what law are the licenses issued?
The same law, excerpting the sections that you believe prohibit same-sex couples in Rowan county from marrying.
Fortunately, this is a red herring.
The chain of events is like this:
-Kim Davis got to be county clerk.
-Davis hired some deputies.
-The deputies have authority to perform any of the jobs that go to a county clerk. This is a key point, with cited statute, that you persistently ignore.
-Davis illegally refuses to do her job.
-Davis goes to jail.
-The deputies, freed from intimidation by Davis, use their authority to perform the jobs of a county clerk that they’re deputized to perform.
You seem to be suggesting that deputies are only authorized to perform those specific duties that the clerk tells them to perform. That is not the case. The relevant statute authorizes them to perform all duties that the clerk may perform, not that the clerk allows them to perform.
If you excerpt that section, then there is nothing that authorizes issuing the license.
As I said, a judge can invalidate a law. But a judge cannot make new law.