Texas county clerks felt betrayed by Texas leaders on gay marriage, emails show

On Wednesday, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals bowed to the inevitable and ordered federal courts in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas to quickly issue final rulings on same-sex marriage in their states, noting pointedly that the right to marry regardless of sexual orientation "is the law of the land and, consequently, the law of this circuit, and should not be taken lightly by actors within jurisdiction of this court."

In Texas, at least, a brief rebellion against Friday's Supreme Court's ruling, encouraged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, was already coming to a close. As of Wednesday morning, according to Texas for Marriage, 80 percent of Texas counties were issuing same-sex marriage licenses, including Hood County, where county clerk Katie Lang had told her staff: "We are not issuing them because I am instilling my religious liberty in this office."

Bud Kennedy at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram obtained that eyebrow-raising communiqué through a freedom-of-information request, but in the process he uncovered a listserv used by all Texas county clerks, and most of them were baffled and angry at Texas officials for not preparing them or offering them guidance or appropriate marriage certificates.

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"We were the first people to be affected and the last ones to be contacted," Deborah Rushing, the clerk for Yoakum County, wrote to her colleagues. "No one had our back." Clerk Jennifer Fountain said that one local resident accused her of "taking Shelby County to the fires of hell" by issuing same-sex licenses, even though nobody complained about other marriage contracts, including those she had issued to "couples that I've had in court for beating each other up" and "people that have lived together for 20 years." Paxton, she added, "hung us all out to dry, threw us under the bus."

Red River County's Shawn Weemes spoke for a lot of fellow clerks: "I [am] so not looking forward to Monday." You can read more about how Texas county clerks dealt with same-sex marriage at the Star-Telegram.