Memo from Beshear to Conway about county clerks uncovered

MEMO

FROM: Gov. Steve Beshear

TO: Attorney General Jack Conway

RE: Get Yer Act Together

General,

I bin discussin' this matter of the county clerks who are defahing my order about enforcin' the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage last Friday with my advisors and we are wonderin' over here why yer office hasn't said a werd about it.

Hep' me out here.

Maybe I'm readin' my Constertution wrong, but ain't you the state's chief law enforcement officer? Where've you bin? Why am I having to do yer job for yer?

My daddy used to say that a man that don't do is job is no better then a run-over varmint.

Of course it doesn't hep that last year you did basically the same thang. You got up in front 'a the cameras over here and had yer little cryin' fit and told everyone you had to foller yer conchince and couldn't do whut ya swore you were gonna do when you got e-lected. And now people are dredgin' all that stuff up agin' an pointin' out that the county clerks got conchinces too.

If I hear anything more about conchinces, I'm gonna file a executive order agin' 'em.

In fact, now that I thank about it, I had to pay for a lawyer 'cuz a yer conchince. As soon as this county clerk thang is all over, I'm gonna start takin' it outta yer paycheck. You kin call it a "conchince de-duction."

So now here I am doin' this a second time. Fer one thing, you stand about six foot four and tawk pritty. I stand about five foot four and tawk like the Turtleman. Who you thank's gonna do this better?

So git your hind end in gear and do yer job.

Steve

Family Foundation Press Release: State county clerks should not have to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 29, 2015   

LEXINGTON, KY— "If it was okay for Jack Conway to do it, it should be okay for county clerks," said a spokesman for the group that pushed for Kentucky traditional marriage law that was struck down by Friday's U. S. Supreme Court decision. On Friday Gov. Steve Beshear told county clerks across the state that they were required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of Kentucky's Constitution. The Family Foundation said today that county clerks whose conscience would be violated by following the Governor's order should consider their options.

"There are county clerks out there who have a religious objection to same-sex marriage," said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst with the Family Foundation. "They should be able to do what our own attorney general did last year when he refused to defend Kentucky's marriage law on conscience grounds. County clerks have consciences too."

In fact, said Cothran, county clerks are on more solid ground than Attorney General Conway because they would not have to violate their oath of office to refuse to issue such licenses. "While Jack Conway violated his oath of office in not defending Kentucky voters, county clerks would actually be honoring theirs. County clerks take an oath to both the federal and state constitutions. The U.S. Constitution nowhere says anything about same-sex marriage and the Kentucky Constitution expressly prohibits it. In refusing to issue licenses, they would actually be complying with the constitutions to which they swore their oaths."

"If the Governor is so concerned about public officials doing their duty, why didn't he write the same kind of letter to Jack Conway that he wrote to county clerks?" asked Cothran.

Cothran also pointed out that there is 25-day period following Supreme Court decisions in which a request for rehearing can be filed, a technical fact that could also affect what county clerks can do.

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Jack Conway Held Hostage: Day 19

The first in a series of reports on the hostage crisis in the Kentucky Attorney General's office between the Attorney General and himself over whether to do his constitutional duty and defend Kentucky's Marriage Amendment:

In an apparent stand-off with himself, Attorney General Jack Conway is holding himself hostage, with his hostage-taker (himself) demanding that he (himself) be relieved of the responsibility of defending a law he is, by constitutional obligation and by his oath of office, sworn to uphold. He is refusing to sign any legal orders with the exception of motions that allow him more time to negotiate with himself over whether he should do his job and appeal the ruling in Bourke vs. Beshear, which struck down part of Kentucky's marriage law which restricts marriages to a relationship between a man and a woman.

Observers had been wondering what had happened to the Attorney General, who, until last Friday, had not put his name to any of the motions in the case and who hasn't shown up for a single meeting called by the judge.

Conway's underlings have had to file the motions and cover the meetings for him, but they have clearly been confused about what to do because, nineteen days after the ruling, the AG has failed to resolve the conflict between the two Jacks. Repeated questions from the judge of assistant attorney generals have been met by indecision and confusion.

In fact, it is unclear, given the quality of briefs and motions filed in the case whether they were even written by someone with a law degree. Some observers suspect the real author of the documents to be the lady who waters the plants in the office—or possibly the janitor.

His office has declined to give any information regarding the hostage's condition other than to say that the AG is "distraught."

We will continue to update readers from Kentucky's Capitol on this developing crisis.