How come a person who swore to uphold the Constitution and defend the country against all enemies foreign and domestic, has the right to be:

A conscientious objector (CO) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion.

Yet a clerk who swore to follow the laws of the Commonwealth can't do the same?

Not a supporter, but if religious beliefs are a strong enough basis for not defending the country in time of war, then don't ya think we might have some same level of tolerance for an administrative clerk?

I think she did go to jail, because she refuse the judges order to follow the law. I think if she had said to the judge "As boss of the office, I will comply, and tell my staff to do so, but I for one will not pen a license with my name", I think she'd been just okay. But she didn't say that, she defied the courts authority, and that court reacted properly in my mind by putting her in jail.

If one holds public office, they are judged not only by their own personal conduct, but also by the leadership ad guidance they give to their subordinates, their staff.

It's like an Army platoon leader, who in the midst of a fire fight, tells his men to seek shelter, then he himself charges the guns to try to save his men. Had the clerk said " I'll do my job as a leader, keep my people out of harms way, and instruct them to comply, but I will stand and charge the guns", I think the judge would have given her the okey-dokey.

After all, that's how she got out, the agreement for her release was that while she would not pen a license, shed make sure her staff followed the law, so that the law that for better or worse now allows a license to be granted, would in fact get granted.

Hey you folks with military background. How many times did you get an order that you hated to follow, but did because it was your duty to do so, and even more importantly, you wanted to be standing with your men/subordinates if the decision you hated to follow did turn out bad? Thats what the clerk should have done. But she got on her pedestal, left her folks hanging in the wind, and as a result got wacked for it.

PS: If she had vacation time accrued, shed be well with in her rights to use that to cover her jail time away from work. She was not AWOL, because her bosses had notice via the court announcement when she went to the hoose-gal. She has earned her annual vacation time as part of her compensation package, just like fed employees.