Former Clerk Ordered to Pay $100,000 for Denying Gay Partners a Marriage License

Kim Davis, the former county clerk in Kentucky who gained national attention eight years ago when she refused to grant marriage licenses to gay partners, has now been ordered by a federal jury to pay one gay couple a total of $100,000.

Back in 2015, five justices on the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states via the notorious Obergefell v. Hodges case. Shortly thereafter, Davis, then the clerk of Rowan County in eastern Kentucky, became a media lightning rod when she refused to sign marriage licenses for gay couples, citing her religious belief that marriage is between one man and one woman.

After hearing about Davis’ intransigence, same-sex partners David Ermold and David Moore arrived at her office “with news cameras in tow,” the New York Post reported, demanding a marriage license. She denied a marriage license to Ermold and Moore as well as to same-sex partners James Yates and Will Smith.

That same year, District Judge David Bunning ruled that Davis was in contempt of court and sent her to jail. She was released five days later after members of her staff authorized the same-sex marriage licenses without Davis’ signature.

Those two gay couples eventually sued Davis, who lost her re-election campaign for county clerk in 2018, and Judge Bunning ultimately ruled last year that, in denying a man a license to wed another man legally, Davis had violated the men’s constitutional rights. (Read more from “Former Clerk Ordered to Pay $100,000 for Denying Gay Partners a Marriage License” HERE)

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