“If you give people the opportunity to choose which orders they follow, that’s what potentially causes problems.” According to Judge David L. Bunning in response to a Kentucky county clerk who refuses to give licenses to gay couples.
Read the article by Alan Blinder and Tamar Lewin in NYT here.
It’s a rather strange for a judge or any other prudent person to disallow people to not obey orders.
And if we allow military personnel to become conscientious dissenters and to seek discharge from the army – and a decent nation should allow this – we should give county clerks the opportunity to become conscientious dissenters as well.
Whether we approve of their beliefs or not should be unimportant.