Here's what happens when clerks refuse [View all]

[jberryhill]

While there have been interesting visions of "lock 'em up" or "send in the troops", the actual process in these instances has a little more sting, and a lot less "martyrdom potential".

So, what do you do when a clerk refuses to issue a lawful marriage license on the basis of their religious beliefs?

Contrary to what some believe, it is not directly a "crime" to disobey a court order, and in a direct sense, this clerk has not been "ordered" by any court to issue a marriage license in the first place.

However, it is now the law of the land that persons of the same sex who are otherwise lawfully able to be married (age, consanguinity, consent, residence, whatever) what the clerk is doing is a deprivation of civil rights.

When you have been deprived of your civil rights by a government official, the relevant law is 42 USC 1983 (that's chapter 42 of the United States Code, Section 1983), typically called a "1983 action":

"Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable."

Okay, so that says "you can sue the clerk".

But, as they say on Survivor, "You want to know what you're playing for?"

Compensatory damages, punitive damages, and, in a rare departure to the normal rules of litigation in the US - attorney's fees - under 42 USC 1988:

"In any action or proceeding to enforce a provision of sections 1981, 1981a, 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1986 of this title... the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity such officer shall not be held liable for any costs, including attorney’s fees, unless such action was clearly in excess of such officer’s jurisdiction."

And, oh yeah, it's clearly in excess. Mind you a "reasonable attorney's fee" does not have to be the actual hours at the billable rate, but what would be "reasonable". If a top shelf NY firm would charge $10,000 to file, then that's "reasonable". The system is run by lawyers, and they can be downright unreasonable about what is a "reasonable attorney's fee".

That, incidentally, is how civil rights litigation organizations are funded, apart from donations.

So, you fill in the relevant names, dates and places in a form complaint, pay your $300 filing fee (also included in the prize package), along with the form motion for emergency injunctive relief, and serve it on the clerk.

The clerk then checks up the line and says, "Hey, is this real? Am I covered for this?" and finds out, in most instances, that the county will not pay their legal fees or cover their liability. The clerk then calls his or her friend the lawyer who says, "Issue the license or get out your checkbook."

Now, where it gets real fun is when the clerk decides he/she wants to be a hero. The clerk is going to lose on the motion for injunctive relief (ordering the clerk to issue the license) and is then going to have to decide how many days they want to spend locked up on contempt before (a) they issue the license, (b) they resign their post or (c) someone else in that county office is empowered to issue the license and they do so. Both (b) and (c) render holding the clerk on contempt to be moot, since the point of contempt is to gain compliance with the order, and not some "penalty" for non-compliance.

And this is what just played out in a county in Texas. While the Texas AG issued a much-hyped memo to clerks saying that they, personally, do not have to issue a license, the less-hyped portion of that memo says that someone ELSE in the office with the same power can issue it.

Karen Phillips, the Smith County (Texas) Clerk, just learned this the hard way:
http://www.kltv.com/story/29433340/same-sex-couple-drops-lawsuit-against-smith-co

Suit filed Friday. Clerk folded on Monday.

Man, if I didn't have my hands full this week, I'd get a van, a couple, and take a road trip into Dumbfuckistan.