According to a federal judge, a former Kentucky clerk violated the Constitution by refusing to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a refusal that landed the clerk in jail. On Friday, US District Judge David Bunning in Ashland issued the ruling on the two lawsuits against Kim Davis, former clerk of Rowan County, and the two couples who were denied licenses. A jury trial will be held to determine whether the couples will receive damages.
In his ruling, the judge made it very clear that Davis ‘cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the rights of others as a member of the elected legislature’. The Obergefell decision recognizes Plaintiff’s right to marry under the Fourteenth Amendment, wrote the judge, referring to the landmark same-sex marriage Obergefell decision. ‘It is also readily apparent that Davis made a conscious decision to violate Plaintiffs’ right’.
Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses after the Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriages in 2015. It led to a lawsuit against her, and she spent five days in jail as a result. Even so, conservative groups in the state and across the country supported her and it appears that her counsel will appeal to a higher court.
Kim Davis is entitled to protection under the First Amendment to an accommodation based on her religious beliefs, said Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver. Kim Davis’ case raises serious First Amendment free exercise of religion issues and may ultimately reach the Supreme Court.
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