A Texas clerk said Monday she will not issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples because the Supreme Court’s ruling is “lawless.”
The Supreme Court was given constitutional authority to “expound the law, not rewrite it or remake it,” Molly Crimer, clerk for Irion County, Texas, said Monday.
“Natural marriage cannot be redefined by government without stepping out of the bounds of nature and nature’s God, who was recognized at the founding of our nation as the very source of our liberties,” Ms. Crimer said, according to Liberty Counsel.
“I must reject this [Obergefell v. Hodges] ruling that I believe is lawless,” she said.
Ms. Crimer is being offered pro bono legal representation by Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based legal defense organization, which released a July 4, 2015 “Declaration of Obedience to Law and Defense of Natural Marriage” about her actions.
“The Supreme Court has historically made a number of bad rulings that time and justice have been able to realize and overcome,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
He has already said Liberty Counsel will provide free legal defense for clerks who want to fight the Supreme Court decision, and at least 25 clerks have called for help, Mr. Staver recently told Associated Press.
Irion County is near San Angelo in midwestern part of Texas. Its population is less than 2,000.
The vast majority of counties in the United States have acted to comply with the Supreme Court’s June 26 ruling in Obergefell, which said the 14th Amendment’s due process and equal protection clauses require states to issue marriage licenses to couples of the same sex.
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.
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