Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned Wednesday that the “persecution” of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples could have consequences for others.
“I’m thinking, if this is what’s going to happen, who’s next? Your pastor? The person who is a caterer?” Mr. Huckabee, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, said on CNN’s “New Day.” “Where does this end when you have this level of outright discrimination and, frankly, persecution [of] someone who genuinely believes in her heart the difference between marriage and something that the Supreme Court has created?”
Mr. Huckabee traveled to Kentucky Tuesday to meet with Mrs. Davis, the Rowan County clerk, who was released by a judge after having been jailed for contempt.
Mr. Huckabee said Mrs. Davis “does not plan to violate her conscience.”
“She’s not going to surrender and give up her basic First Amendment rights — which, by the way, are expressly clear in the Constitution. Nothing in the Constitution says there’s any federal interest in marriage, but there is absolutely an interest in protecting people’s right to religious liberty,” he said.
“I think this is more than a right of religious liberty. This goes to the heart of the separation of powers, checks and balances and whether or not a court can just make up a law out of thin air,” he said. “But there are many issues. The one thing that I think we ought to agree on is that while this is all getting sorted out, that you shouldn’t be putting people like Kim Davis in jail, for heaven’s sakes.”
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump on Kim Davis: ‘This was not the right job for her’
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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