Huckabee: Ky. clerk could see jail time for her faith

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said on Thursday that he can envision jail time for a Kentucky clerk who is refusing to approve same-sex marriage licenses due to her faith.

{mosads}“This is, I think, long from being settled and that’s why I believe this case in Kentucky may end up being the first case in which a person for their Christian convictions is going to be put in jail because they refused to bow to a decision that is suspect at best,” the GOP presidential candidate said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution in which the federal government has any role in marriage,” said Huckabee, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate. “Nothing whatsoever.”

“We have one branch of government overruling the other two,” he added of the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage earlier this summer. “That’s not how we function as a government.”

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis is currently making headlines by refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses on account of her religious beliefs as a Christian.

Huckabee argued on Thursday that Davis is making a stand for religious liberty by ignoring the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges last June.

“I want people to stand up for their convictions,” he said of Davis. “I want them to have the courage of their convictions, not to acquiesce to a court ruling. That’s why I say this Kentucky clerk is standing tall for what she believes and what the law is in her state.”

Davis’s decision is controversial given the Supreme Court’s ruling recognizing same-sex marriage across all 50 states.

The Kentucky clerk has argued her state’s law defines marriage as only the union of a man and a woman.

She has additionally stated that the Christian faith is the inspiration for her stance against the court’s ruling. Davis is due in court Thursday morning for her defiance of a judge’s order to issue same-sex marriage licenses.