Sen. Ted Cruz, on Thursday accused U.S. District Judge David Bunning of “judicial tyranny” for jailing a Kentucky county clerk who refused to violate her Christian faith and issue licenses to same-sex couples.

He said those who are calling for her removal from office – she can’t be fired, she can only be impeached if she chooses not to quit – are hypocrites.

“Where is the call for President Obama to resign for ignoring and defying our immigration laws, our welfare reform laws, and even his own Obamacare?” Cruz said. “When the mayor of San Francisco and President Obama resign, then we can talk about Kim Davis.

“Those who are persecuting Kim Davis believe that Christians should not serve in public office. That is the consequence of their position. Or, if Christians do serve in public office, they must disregard their religious faith – or be sent to jail,” he continued. “Kim Davis should not be in jail. We are a country founded on Judeo-Christian values, founded by those fleeing religious oppression and seeking a land where we could worship God and live according to our faith, without being imprisoned for doing so.

“I call upon every believer, every constitutionalist, every lover of liberty to stand with Kim Davis. Stop the persecution now.”

Bunning summoned Rowan County clerk Kim Davis to his courtroom on Thursday after she defied his order to violate her faith and issue licenses to same-sex couples.

Bunning, who previously has ruled in favor of partial-birth abortion and homosexual clubs for high schoolers, said a fine simply wasn’t enough punishment for her and ordered her to jail until she agrees to issue the licenses.

Then he ordered her assistants to either issue the licenses or join her in jail. Five of the six agreed, several under protest.

Bunning later tried to resolve the case by telling Davis to come back to his courtroom and she could go if she agreed not to interfere with her deputies’ actions, according to reports.

She refused.

Cruz said: “Today, judicial lawlessness crossed into judicial tyranny. Today, for the first time ever, the government arrested a Christian woman for living according to her faith. This is wrong. This is not America.”

“I stand with Kim Davis. Unequivocally. I stand with every American that the Obama administration is trying to force to choose between honoring his or her faith or complying with a lawless court decision,” he said. “In dissent, Chief Justice Roberts rightly observed that the court’s marriage decision has nothing to do with the Constitution. Justice Scalia observed that the court’s decision was so contrary to law that state and local officials would choose to defy it.

“For every politician – Democrat and Republican – who is tut-tutting that Davis must resign, they are defending a hypocritical standard. Where is the call for the mayor of San Francisco to resign for creating a sanctuary city – resulting in the murder of American citizens by criminal illegal aliens welcomed by his lawlessness?”

Paul Kengor, author of “Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage,  today “it’s the county clerk, tomorrow it will be the florist, the baker, the photographer, the pastor, and on and on,” warned

“Get ready for the persecution coming near you – all, of course, in the name of ‘love’ and ‘tolerance,’” he said. “This has only just begun.”

Kengor was not surprised by the jailing. He said a moment like this became inevitable as soon as Anthony Kennedy and four other Supreme Court justices declared “same-sex marriage” a constitutional right in June.

“For the apostles of tolerance and diversity, this is what their ‘tolerance’ and ‘diversity’ actually look like in practice,” Kengor told WND. “It is intolerance. It is coercion. It is pickets, boycotts, fines, penalties, demonization, and, in some cases, incarceration. Welcome to the Left’s new America, where those who disagree with the Left’s ongoing invention of new ‘rights’ are penalized by the state.”

Michael Brown, a WND columnist, said the case exemplifies why he wrote his new book “Outlasting the Gay Revolution.”

“There will be a price to pay, but it is only as we stand firm that change will come,” Brown told WND. “Kim Davis is paying a very real price now.”

Prior to her court appearance, Davis told Fox News’ Todd Starnes she was prepared to go to jail for her beliefs, saying, “This is a fight worth fighting.”

She actually stopped issuing any marriage licenses after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision so she would not be discriminating against any group.

“This is why the very first principle in the book is ‘Never Compromise Your Convictions’ and the fourth principle is ‘Refuse to Redefine Marriage,’” Brown said. “This is the great moral, cultural, and spiritual test of our generation. Will we do what is right in God’s sight – which is in the ultimate best interests of our society – or will we cave in and capitulate?”

Kengor warned that progressives will be ruthless on this matter.

“Be prepared for something even more shocking from the Left – the lack of apologies and regrets,” he said. “Liberals will defend and even applaud the sight of this woman being hauled off to jail.”

Indeed, hundreds of people outside the courthouse chanted, “Love won! Love won!”

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee tweeted his support for Davis: “Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubts about the criminalization of Christianity in this country. We must defend #ReligiousLiberty!” he said.

Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage said the fault rests with the Supreme Court, which created the conflict between the enumerated constitutional right of free religious exercise and the newly created “same-sex marriage” right.

“It is outrageous to jail Kim Davis because she does not want to personally be part of certifying same-sex ‘marriages’ that violate her deeply held religious beliefs about the nature of marriage,” said Brown. “What this judge is saying is that now that the Supreme Court has illegitimately redefined marriage, every single person in government if not in the country must stand in salute and participate in the act. That is profoundly wrong and violates the spirit of federal law which provides that the government must seek ways to reasonably accommodate people’s religious views in the workplace.”

He said: “While Judge Bunning is the instrument of the inhumane punishing of Kim Davis, the authors of it are the five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court who illegitimately, without a shred of constitutional authority, redefined marriage without any regard to the profound implications their ruling would have on law-abiding, faithful Americans. With this ruling, the idea of religious freedom that is at the heart of our constitution has been eliminated when it comes to exercising beliefs about marriage. It’s a profound shredding of the constitution on the altar of gay activism.”

Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, said that Davis’ “predicament is the direct result of the lawlessness promoted by the Supreme Court of the United States itself with its unconstitutional Obergefell decision.”

“It’s flippant, and frankly insulting, treatment of religious liberty and Obergefell is a disgrace to that great institution.”

AL.com reported Davis’ lawyer, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, said, “While she may be behind bars for now, Kim Davis is a free woman. Her conscience remains unshackled.”

Raw Story reported the White House expressed no concern for Davis or religious freedom, with spokesman Josh Earnest saying: “There’s a rule of law and the principle of the rule of law is central to our democracy. And it’s appropriate in this instance for a federal judge to determine the best way to enforce the law.”

A legislative leader in Kentucky had asked the judge to delay the case until lawmakers could provide a resolution, but Bunning refused. He also refused, according to Davis’ supporters, to provider her due process.

WBKO in Bowling Green quoted one pastor raising a question that Bunning failed to address.

Tom James of Eastwood Baptist Church told the station: “The Supreme Court didn’t make a law, they just interpreted the one that was already on the books. … The First Amendment guarantees our freedom to practice our faith, and just because she is a public official, I don’t know of any law that says she loses that freedom.”

Another pastor criticized her for not following the ruling in her position as county clerk. However, “same-sex marriage” was not the law when Davis was elected.

http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/cruz-rips-federal-judges-tyranny-in-clerks-case/