# Anyone familiar with KY law: Wasn't there another way to handle the defiant county clerk? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 4, 2015, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-familiar-with-ky-law-wasnt-there-another-way-to-handle-the-defiant-county-clerk/729885 "2015-09-04T05:19:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-familiar-with-ky-law-wasnt-there-another-way-to-handle-the-defiant-county-clerk/729885/81 "2015-09-09T11:16:25Z")
messed up the quoting: > [@PatrickLondon](#): > > But surely disobeying the law _on their own initiative_ would be official misconduct, rendering them liable to relatively speedy disciplinary procedures. Assuming by “they” you mean the deputies ,my point is that it’s not so easy to say that the deputies would have acted differently before Davis was jailed if only they had been civil servants. Being a civil servant offers some protection- but that sometimes that only means you get your job back after spending a couple of years in court fighting being fired. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-familiar-with-ky-law-wasnt-there-another-way-to-handle-the-defiant-county-clerk/729885/82 "2015-09-09T12:25:19Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > … For me, the whole point of civil servants is to follow policies based on political considerations, provided those are properly defined and set by a properly elected authority, which then has the legal and political liability for them. … I’d say just the opposite. A civil servant is supposed to enforce policy _regardlardless_ of political considerations. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-familiar-with-ky-law-wasnt-there-another-way-to-handle-the-defiant-county-clerk/729885/83 "2015-09-09T12:43:32Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Actually, I believe that was when she became a _born-again, fundamentalist_ Christian. > > She may even say now that she wasn’t a Christian then, but that is using the fundamentalist criteria that until you are ‘born again’, you aren’t really a Christian. Just like they often say Catholics aren’t real Christians. But she was a Christian by the mainstream definition of Christian. I came across one of those born again nutters a few weeks ago. She wanted to argue that she should get her kids back from her ex because he registered them in a Roman Catholic school and Roman Catholics were not Christians. > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Now in Canada, we elect one MP, one mayor and one town councilor. Also one school board member. That’s all. And except for mayor and councilor, each election is for one office only. And MPP. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-familiar-with-ky-law-wasnt-there-another-way-to-handle-the-defiant-county-clerk/729885/84 "2015-09-10T07:01:03Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Assuming by “they” you mean the deputies ,my point is that it’s not so easy to say that the deputies would have acted differently before Davis was jailed if only they had been civil servants. Being a civil servant offers some protection- but that sometimes that only means you get your job back after spending a couple of years in court fighting being fired. Ms. Davis or her staff might well not have behaved differently had they been civil servants; but had they been, they could have been removed/transferred/sacked administratively and pretty swiftly, leaving the legal arguments to follow later, without disruption to the service. In this case, presumably they wouldn’t necessarily have got the job back, given the judgment that the courts enforced. That’s certainly what happened in the comparable case in this country (though there are other ways of managing people out, often by some sort of redundancy deal, though common-sense compromises clearly wouldn’t have been on the agenda in this case, I assume). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-familiar-with-ky-law-wasnt-there-another-way-to-handle-the-defiant-county-clerk/729885.md?page=4)