Yesterday’s second Republican presidential debate, predictably saw candidates rush to the defense of Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who not only refused to follow the rule of law and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but also refused to permit her deputies to issue marriage licenses.
Both Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush defended Davis, with Huckabee devoting much of his speaking time railing against the “criminalization of Christianity.”
Bush and Huckabee were joined by Rick Santorum, who at the first debate, made a case for the so-called “First Amendment Defense Act,” (FADA). FADA would allow an employee like Davis to argue she was permitted to deny a marriage license to a couple, or allow an employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs to argue that they were not required to process a claim for survivor benefits for the same-sex spouse of a servicemember for personal religious reasons.
“Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush tonight tripped all over themselves trying to be the first to defend government officials who want to ignore the rule of law in order to discriminate against LGBT people,” said HRC Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs JoDee Winterhof. “Our next president should defend the Constitutional rights of all Americans, including LGBT people, and fight for full federal equality. Instead, tonight, Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee continued down the wrong path by saying they want to encourage government officials who deny LGBT Americans their constitutional right to equal treatment under the law.”
