By Bill Estep
Lexington Herald-Leader
SHELBY COUNTY, Ky. — The Shelby County clerk must find a way to issue a marriage license to a female prison inmate in the county and a Louisville man, a federal judge ruled this week.
Bradley Jones, a carpenter, went to the clerk’s office last June to get a license to marry Kathryn Brooke Sauer, who is serving time on robbery and other charges at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women.
The two dated briefly in middle school, then were apart for years before rekindling a romance in 2014, after Sauer had been imprisoned, according to a court record.
Shelby County Clerk Sue Carole Perry’s office would not give Jones a license, citing a rule that both parties to a marriage must apply for a license in person.
Perry said she did to object to the marriage, but had to follow the rule.
He argued the policy of requiring Sauer to apply in person effectively barred the marriage, violating his constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove agreed.
Van Tatenhove said in a ruling this week that state law does not mention the in-person requirement.
He called the rule a contrivance of Perry and other government officials, and ordered Perry to come up with a method to issue the license.
Perry could send a deputy to the prison to let Sauer sign the license, for instance, or could authorize an official at the prison to do that, the judge said.
The judge gave Perry until Nov. 4 to come up with a policy that allows the couple to get married.