When Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis returns to work sometime in the next few days, she may have a hard time persuading her employees to stop issuing licenses to same-sex couples.
At least one of them says he'll keep granting them despite indications that his boss won't allow it.
"When Miss Davis comes back, I'll still issue licenses," Rowan County deputy clerk Brian Mason told NBC News Wednesday.
He and four other deputy clerks have been granting licenses to same sex couples since Davis was jailed last week for refusing to do so. A devout Christian, she says authorizing the unions — deemed legal in June by the U.S. Supreme Court — would violate her conscience and religious freedom.
In Davis' absence, her deputies have issued seven licenses to same-sex couples and three to heterosexual couples, Mason said.
Davis was released Tuesday when a judge said she could remain free as long as she didn't interfere with her office's issuance of licenses.
Related: Kentucky's Kim Davis Isn't Only Holdout Clerk
But her lawyer has said she won't back down. She's demanding the state accommodate her by changing the licensing process so the documents aren't issued in her name or under her legal authority. She argues that the licenses issued during her jailing were not valid because her deputies didn't have the authority.
That means there could be a confrontation when she returns to the office Friday or Monday.
Mason said he hadn't spoken to Davis since her jailing. He said Davis has never threatened him with firing, and didn't know what would happen when she returned.
In the meantime, he said, "It's been a little hectic, but we still carry on business like we normally do."
