Clerk who denied same-sex marriage licenses in 2015 is still fighting Supreme Court's ruling
Kim Davis became a cultural lightning rod 10 years ago, bringing national media and conservative religious leaders to eastern Kentucky as she continued for weeks to deny the licenses. She later met Pope Francis in Rome and was parodied on 'Saturday Night Live.'
Kim Davis denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples
Davis began denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015.
Videos of a same-sex couple arguing with Davis in the clerk's office over their denial of a license drew national attention to her office.
She defied court orders to issue the licenses until a federal judge jailed her for contempt of court in September 2015. Davis was released after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form.
The Kentucky Legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.
Davis cited her Christian faith
Davis said her faith forbade her from what she saw as an endorsement of same-sex marriage. Faith leaders and conservative political leaders including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and then-Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin rallied to her cause.
After her release from jail, Davis addressed the media, saying that issuing same-sex marriage licenses 'would be conflicting with God's definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman. This would be an act of disobedience to my God.'
Davis declined a request for an interview from The Associated Press for this story.
A man who was denied a license ran for her office
In 2018, one of the men who had confronted Davis over her defiance ran for her office. David Ermold said he believed people in Rowan County were sick of Davis and wanted to move on.
When he went to file his papers for the Democratic primary, Davis, a Republican, was there in her capacity as clerk to sign him up. Sitting across a desk from each other, the cordial meeting contrasted the first time they met three years earlier.
Both candidates lost; Ermold in the primary and Davis in the general election. She has not returned to politics.
10 years later, Davis wants the Supreme Court to reconsider same-sex marriage
Davis' lawyers are attempting again to get her case before the Supreme Court, after the high court declined to hear an appeal from her in 2020.
A federal judge has ordered Davis to pay a total of $360,000 in damages and attorney fees to Ermold and his partner.
Davis lost a bid in March to have her appeal of that ruling heard by a federal appeals court, but she will appeal again to the Supreme Court. Her attorney, Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel, said the goal is affirm Davis' constitutional rights and 'overturn Obergefell.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
12 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Justice Department releases new list of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions
Associated Press (AP) — The Justice Department identified some three dozen states, cities and counties as so-called sanctuary jurisdictions on Tuesday, two months after the federal government quietly removed a much longer list that included many localities that support the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies. The earlier, typo-riddled list was met with pushback from across the political spectrum, with officials often saying it wasn't clear why their jurisdictions were included. The new announcement doesn't appear to threaten consequences beyond what the federal government is already doing. Attorney General Pamela Bondi warned in the announcement that the department would 'continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.' 'Sanctuary policies impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design,' she said. The new list is composed overwhelmingly of Democratic jurisdictions, including states like New York and California, cities like Boston and New York City and a handful of counties, including Baltimore County, Maryland, and Cook County, Illinois. There's no clear definition of sanctuary jurisdictions, but the term is generally applied to state and local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The administration never fully explained the errors in the first announcement, which included hundreds of jurisdictions, including places that had voted overwhelmingly for Trump and at least one that had declared itself a 'non-sanctuary city.' The list was published in late May on the Department of Homeland Security's website but within three days was replaced with a 'Page Not Found' error message. Trump officials have long warned that the federal government would go after jurisdictions that resist the president's plans for mass deportations. In April, Trump signed an executive order requiring Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of jurisdictions they believe are obstructing federal immigration laws. The administration has filed a series of lawsuits targeting state or city policies it says are interfering with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Rochester, New York. It sued four New Jersey cities in May. In late July, a judge in Illinois dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit that sought to disrupt limits Chicago imposes on cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police.
CBC
30 minutes ago
- CBC
N.S. man's sexual assault conviction overturned because case took too long
A Nova Scotia man's sexual assault conviction has been overturned because his case took too long to go through the justice system. Jamal Zaki was charged with sexual assault on April 13, 2022. After a provincial court trial concluded 22½ months later, he was convicted of the charge on March 25, 2024. The Supreme Court of Canada has set strict timelines for the completion of criminal matters in lower courts. In provincial courts, the so-called Jordan timeline calls for cases to be done in 18 months. Zaki's lawyer argued his conviction violated his client's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because the case exceeded the 18-month mark. But Judge Gregory Lenehan dismissed Zaki's application, saying much of the delay in the case was due to the defendant's actions. The judge specifically singled out a defence request to obtain notes from a therapist who treated the complainant and for a delayed start to the trial because of double booking in the courts. However, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal disagreed with Lenehan's calculation. A three-member panel said the trial judge should have been paying more attention to the looming deadline. "There was no trial management undertaken to clear an earlier half-day of trial time, nor any consideration of breaking the trial time down into shorter segments in order to conclude sooner than February 26, 2024," the Appeal Court wrote. "Had any inquiry been made, the urgency of the situation would have been apparent." Once the Appeal Court determined that a large part of the delay could not be attributed to Zaki, it issued a stay of proceedings on the sexual assault charge.
Global News
42 minutes ago
- Global News
Texas governor orders arrest of ‘delinquent' Democrats who fled to block vote
Texas Republicans are moving to arrest a group of legislators who fled the state to restrict the government's ability to reconfigure electoral boundaries in a manner they say would diminish the voting power of minority groups. On Monday, Texas State Gov. Greg Abbott accused the defectors of abandoning their duties and breaking the law. 'By fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty,' he said in a press release. 'Speaker Dustin Burrows just issued a call of the Texas House and issued warrants to compel members to return to the chamber,' he continued. 'To ensure compliance, I ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans,' he continued. Story continues below advertisement In an additional statement, Abbott said he had ordered Texas Rangers to investigate the 'delinquent' House Democrats on 'potential violations of state law, including bribery.' View image in full screen Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks during a bill signing in the State Capitol on April 23, 2025, in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell / Getty Images 'Reports indicate that many absentee Texas House Democrats have solicited or received funds to evade conducting legislative business and casting votes,' he said. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Democrats who left Texas are beyond the reach of state law enforcement, and their absence means the 150-member legislature can not operate because, without them, it does not meet the minimum number of lawmakers required to function. Texas's Republican-controlled state House, therefore, could not hold a scheduled vote on the new district maps on Monday afternoon. The House planned to try again Tuesday, even with no expectation that Democrats would return. President Trump and Abbott want to redraw the Texas congressional map in the hopes of adding five more Republican seats in Texas in the midterm elections. If they succeed, it would increase the party's chance of maintaining its slim U.S. House majority, which currently sits at 219-212. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas's 38 seats in the House of Representatives. Story continues below advertisement With limited power in the state House, Democrats fled the state to delay Trump's agenda, with many heading for Illinois and New York. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed a group of Democrats as they arrived in Chicago on Friday. Prizker, one of Trump's most outspoken critics, had been in quiet talks with Texas Democrats for weeks about offering support if they chose to leave the state, The Associated Press reported. Last week, he publicly hosted a group of Texas Democrats to oppose the redistricting efforts, it added. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another outspoken Trump detractor, held a similar event in his state. Meanwhile, while hosting Texas Democrats in Albany, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned of the far-reaching implications of redrawing congressional lines, a process that happens every 10 years in the U.S. Story continues below advertisement 'I have a news flash for Republicans in Texas: This is no longer the Wild West,' Hochul said. 'We're not going to tolerate our democracy being stolen in a modern-day stagecoach heist by a bunch of law-breaking cowboys, ' she said. In an op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday, she wrote that the Republicans were attempting to execute 'an aggressive power grab designed to flip as many as five current Democratic seats. They've carved up diverse communities in Houston, Dallas, and along the border to silence the voters who live there.' A lawmaker refusing to show up is a civil violation of legislative rules, and they can be fined $500 for every day they aren't in attendance. — With files from The Associated Press
