Sometimes the dumb is thick enough to suffocate anybody in the immediate area. That’s what’s going on here.

An Indiana clerk refused to issue marriage licenses to certain people (same-sex couples) who are legally entitled to them (same-sex couples) and, not surprisingly, was fired for not doing her job. Now she’s suing the county:

Linda Summers, a former clerk’s office employee in Harrison County, filed the lawsuit last week against the county and County Clerk Sally Whitis in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in New Albany. The suit, which is filed in federal court, is not an invocation of the state’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act or RFRA. According to the complaint, Summers wrote and hand-delivered a letter to Whitis, telling her that processing licenses for gay couples is against her sincerely held religious beliefs against same-sex marriage, and asking that she not be required to do so. Summers was fired on Dec. 9, shortly after she gave her letter to Whitis, who accused her of insubordination. She accused her former employer of unlawful employment practice and alleged that her termination is against the county policy of not discriminating against anyone based on “race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, military status, or any other classification under applicable law,” according to the complaint.

The theme of this lawsuit is literally, “I told them I wouldn’t do my job and they fired me for it! How dare they?”

Because, clearly, being religious means you should get paid to not do a job.

Louisville lawyer Richard Masters, who is representing Summers, said the lawsuit is “just a generic First Amendment free exercise case” and his client had the protected right to exercise her religious beliefs that go against same-sex marriage.

Wrong! If a vegetarian is working at McDonalds and refuses to serve customers wanting hamburgers, she needs to get fired. I’m all for employment protection laws, but an employer shouldn’t be required to pay somebody to not do a job.

What’s more, government workers don’t get to pick and choose which citizens get the services to which they are legally entitled, and which are that person’s job to provide. Religious freedom means you don’t have to take a job you don’t want. It doesn’t mean you get to take a job and then not do it.

And lastly, it takes some brass to complain that you’re being discriminated against when you’re the one insisting it’s your right to deny a government service to a whole class of people.

h/t to Ed Brayton