Judge in Kentucky clerk case is son of a Phillies great

The judge who sent a Kentucky county clerk to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples is the son of Phillies great Jim Bunning, who pitched a perfect game in 1964.

U.S. District Court Judge David L. Bunning was born in Fort Thomas, Ky., his father's native state, two years after that historic 6-0 Father's Day win over the New York Mets, one of the last of Bunning's nine children.

On Thursday, Judge Bunning ordered Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to be jailed for contempt for refusing to allow her office to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Five of Davis' deputies told Bunning they would issue the licenses.

After retiring from baseball in 1971, Jim Bunning entered politics in Kentucky and was the state's U.S. Senator from 1999 to 2011.

David Bunning was an assistant U.S. attorney when then President George W. Bush appointed him to the federal bench in 2001.

In 2003 he presided over another gay-rights case, ruling that a Kentucky school system had to allow a student group - the Gay-Straight Alliance - to meet in school grounds, the New York Times reports.

His father campaigned against same-sex marriage when he was in the U.S. Senate.

In issuing the ruling Thursday, Judge Bunning hinted he also did not support gay marriage, saying "Personal opinions, including my own, are not relevant to today."

Then added, "The idea of natural law superseding this court's authority would be a dangerous precedent indeed."