Federal judge rules against former Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis for refusing to issue gay marriage licenses in 2015

I haven’t heard the name Kim Davis in a long time and if you’ve forgotten about her, she was the Kentucky clerk who refused it issue marriage licenses to gay couples after the Supreme Court made gay marriage legal in the US.

To put it simply, she didn’t want her name on these marriage licenses because as a Christian it would have conflicted with her beliefs because homosexulity is a sin.

Now a judge is ruling that she violated the rights of gay couples in Kentucky and is allowing a jury trial to go forward t assess damages:

NBC NEWS – A U.S. judge ruled that a former county clerk from Kentucky knowingly violated the rights of same-sex couples by denying them marriage licenses in 2015, clearing the way for a jury trial seeking damages against her.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge David Bunning on Friday also denied a request for immunity from former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis.

Davis thrust herself into the center of the U.S. culture wars on the issue of LGBTQ rights by denying the licenses in 2015, citing her religious beliefs. She briefly went to jail for contempt of court over her refusal and a deputy clerk in the eastern Kentucky county issued the licenses.

The two couples in the lawsuit had sought to marry in the immediate aftermath of the landmark 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges. They sued Davis in 2015, alleging she had violated their constitutional rights.

But Davis repeatedly refused to issue marriage licenses, despite a letter from the governor instructing all county clerks to issue the licenses and a legal opinion from the Rowan County attorney, which she had sought, advising that she had a legal requirement to do so.

“It is readily apparent that Obergefell recognizes Plaintiffs’ Fourteenth Amendment right to marry. It is also readily apparent that Davis made a conscious decision to violate Plaintiffs’ right,” the judge ruled in a summary judgment.

With the essential facts in the case now settled, the two couples, David Ermold and David Moore in one case and James Yates and Will Smith in another, can proceed to jury trial to seek damages against Davis as an individual.

Davis had previously been granted sovereign immunity in her official capacity.

Liberty Counsel, a Christian organization representing Davis, said it would continue to argue she is not liable for damages because she is entitled to a religious accommodation granted by the state legislature and former Governor Matt Bevin.

This is what we’ve always argued about legalizing gay marriage and why it’s so dangerous. The Supreme Court granted new, invented rights to one group of people while taking the constitutional rights away from another. In this case, Kim Davis has been stripped of her constitutional rights to live in a way consistent with her Christian religious beliefs and now she’s going to be pushed for daring to stand by them.

If you are wondering, Judge David Bunning was a George W. Bush appointee back in 2002.


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