After spending five days in jail for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses, Rowan County clerk Kim Davis was released on September 8 and returns to work Monday morning. Despite being ordered to issue licenses to all couples seeking them, Davis said she will not personally issue or authorize any licenses, though she will not interfere with any deputy clerk who does.
"If any of them feels that they must issue an unauthorized license to avoid being thrown in jail, I understand their tough choice and I will take no action against them," she said in a statement outside the courthouse.
Licenses will instead state that they are "issued pursuant to a federal court order." Davis said she believes these conditions reconcile her conscience with the federal injunction ordering her to provide forms.
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"I don't want to have this conflict. I don't want to be in the spotlight. And I certainly don't want to be a whipping post," Davis said. "I am no hero. I'm just a person who has been transformed by the grace of God."
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