From your link: She removed her name and the name of the county from the form. Is that altering a government document? Is there punishment for what she did?
IMO, it seems clear she could have her name removed from the document. But removing the COUNTY that the document was issued in is a whole other ballgame, IMO. I don't think that is legal. But we will have to wait and see what the lawyers and courts think.
She may have quite intentionally done this stunt (removing the county of issue) precisely to manipulate the issue BACK into the courts, since she's been shot down by the courts at every turn.
Kentucky, Rowan County, and the rest of our country really DO have to confront these issues of willful disobedience on the part of government officials, and pass into law better and more efficient procedures to remove them from office and hold them accountable.
IMO, once a situation is so chaotic that a judge has to find a county clerk in contempt, and jail her, there should be an automatic mechanism to provide for removal from office.
No county or state legislature should be burdened with whether or not to spend more taxpayer money to continue to litigate the temper tantrum of a county official.
Maybe it would be as simple as changing low level positions such as county clerks to
appointed employee positions, rather than
elected ones.
The officially sanctioned nepotism needs to be withdrawn, too.
Lots and lots of fodder for bills for the new legislative session, IMO. I hope KY residents are contacting their elected legislators and urging change.