Kentucky governor orders county clerks' names removed from marriage licenses

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) has directed the state's department of libraries and archives to issue new marriage license forms that do not list the names of county clerks in order to "ensure that the sincerely held religious beliefs of all Kentuckians are honored."

This was one of five executive orders Bevin issued on Tuesday. Earlier in the year, the Rowan County clerk, Kim Davis, spent five days in jail for refusing to issue licenses to same-sex couples on the grounds that it went against her religious beliefs. Since September, a deputy clerk has been issuing marriage licenses to couples that do not include Davis' name or the name of the county, The Guardian reports.

State law requires that a county clerk's name appears on marriage licenses, however, and the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement Bevin's order "added to the cloud of concern that hands over marriage licensing in Kentucky. The requirement that the county clerk's name appear on marriage licenses is prescribed by Kentucky law and is not subject to unilateral change by the governor. Government officials, from the highest to the lowest, have a duty and responsibility to impartially administer the laws that exist, not the laws as they wish them to be."

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