Morris clerk: Kentucky clerk wrong to violate law

Morris County Clerk Ann Grossi said Rowan County, Ky., Clerk Kim Davis “violated the law” and “failed in her sworn duty” by refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

“I don’t want to condemn her for not performing her duties but obviously yes, she is not doing what she is supposed to be doing according to the laws of the land,” said Grossi, an attorney and former Morris County freeholder who was elected to the clerk’s office in 2013. “You’re there to uphold the law.”

Grossi, a Roman Catholic, said she has “mixed feelings” about seeing Davis sent to jail on Thursday after U.S. District Judge David Bunning found her in contempt for continuing to block same-sex couples’ attempts to obtain marriage licenses in her Rowan County office. An Apostolic Christian, Davis said authorizing such marriages, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to be legal in June, would violate her religious freedom.

After the Supreme Court ruled, Kentucky Gov. Steven Beshear ordered all Kentucky clerks to abide by it. Davis defied them. Same-sex couples sued her for contempt. Bunning ordered Davis to issue the licenses, and the Supreme Court upheld his ruling. But Davis refused and Bunning sent her to jail.

On Tuesday, Davis was released from jail after Bunning lifted the contempt ruling against her, saying he was satisfied that her deputies were fulfilling their obligation to grant licenses to same-sex couples in her absence.

Five of Davis’ six deputy clerks — all except her son, Nathan — agreed to issue licenses to gay couples with Davis behind bars. In lifting the contempt order, Bunning asked for updates on the clerks’ compliance every two weeks.

But U.S. District Judge David Bunning also warned Davis not to interfere again, or else she could wind up back in jail.

Davis, 49, has refused to resign her $80,000-a-year job. As an elected official, she can lose her post only if she is defeated for re-election or is impeached by the state General Assembly. The latter is unlikely, given the legislature’s conservative nature.

The scenario playing out in Kentucky could not happen in New Jersey, Grossi said, at least not on the county level.

“In New Jersey, (county clerks) do not issue marriage licenses,” Grossi said Monday while preparing to participate in the Mendham Labor Day Parade. “We perform ceremonies, but we don’t issue the licenses. The licenses are under the authority of the local municipal clerks’ office.”

Grossi said that county clerks in New Jersey may opt not to perform any marriages. “I think if you don’t want to perform any ceremonies at all, that’s OK, as long as you don’t pick and choose,” Grossi said.

In Morris County, Grossi gladly chooses to perform wedding ceremonies.

“It’s one of the nicest parts of my job,” she said. “Anyone that comes to my office, I’m happy to perform ceremonies. I think I’m up to 178 weddings, of all kinds, since I’ve been in office.”

The issue of gay marriage came up when Grossi was on the campaign trail.

“One of the questions that was repeatedly asked when I was running was whether I would perform weddings for gay or lesbian couples,” she recalled. “And the response not only from me, but to the credit of all the candidates at that time, was that yes, they would. That’s the oath that we take, to uphold the laws of the state of New Jersey and the United States when we’re elected, and we were all going to follow whatever the law was.”

Grossi appreciates that Davis is caught in an ethical conflict between her religious beliefs and her legal responsibilities, but believes that Davis could have and should have taken a different path than defying the law.

“I think there’s probably ways for her to go around it by having her deputy clerks doing it,” Grossi siad, “I don’t know if she influences them and told them they can’t. But if you personally don’t want to issue them, there should be other people in your office that should be able to do it. My deputy clerk can act in my absence. He can even act if I’m there, if I want him to.”

Otherwise, if a clerk does not want to issue a marriage license, “Then I don’t think you should be there,” Grossi said. “I wouldn’t be there in the first place. Or I would let someone else do it.”

Agreeing to issue marriage licenses or perform wedding ceremonies for gay couples can be a problem for clerks as well, Grossi said.

“There were people who obviously don’t want me to be performing these ceremonies,” Grossi said. “They ask me, as a Roman Catholic, how I square that. I tell them if you read the Bible, Jesus told the people to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. If you read the Bible and you believe in Jesus’ word, this is what Jesus said to do. So I’m actually following what Jesus said, right out of the Bible.”

Staff Writer William Westhoven: 973-917-9242; wwesthoven@GannettNJ.com.