A grand jury will decide whether former county clerk Kim Davis is liable for legal fees and other monetary damages after she refused to sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples last year. 2015.
Timothy D. Easley / AP
hide captions
switch captions
Timothy D. Easley / AP
A grand jury will decide whether former county clerk Kim Davis is liable for legal fees and other monetary damages after she refused to sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples last year. 2015.
Timothy D. Easley / AP
Kim Davis – former secretary in Kentucky Whose refusal? to sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples that drew national attention in 2015 – violated their constitutional rights, a federal judge found.
This decision leaves questions on whether the former secretary responsible for the court costs of the two couples who have sued and other monetary damages that have accumulated over the past seven years are legal.
A jury will decide if Davis is liable for those fees and other damages, which can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“After SEVEN years, Judge Bunning has finally ruled that Kim Davis knowingly violated our constitutional rights,” David Ermold tweeted. He was one of those who were initially denied a marriage license by Davis.
“Now the question is whether they will hold her financially responsible for the insensitive and irrational legal mess SHE has created,” he said. “It feels like seven years of legal purgatory.”
Liberal Attorney, represent Davis, said it “will continue to argue that she is not liable for damages because she is already entitled to a religious accommodation (which Governor Mat Bevin and the legislature have granted).”
Attorneys, a religious freedom organization that specializes in lawsuits involving evangelical Christian values, said: “Davis argued that finding liability would violate the Religious Freedom Act. religion in the First Amendment.
Davis claims ‘god’s authority’ to deny marriage license
The legal battle began in 2015 when Davis, as a district clerk, defied a Supreme Court ruling. Obergefell sues Hodges. It was a landmark decision Same-sex marriage legalized nationwide.
She said distributing marriage certificates to such couples went against her beliefs as a member of the Apostolic Church, arguing that she could not issue them marriage certificates. kiss “under the authority of God.”
Her rejection quickly gained support from conservatives in society and anger from supporters of same-sex marriage.
Ermold and now husband David Moore was denied a marriage license three times, and another couple – James Yates and Will Smith – was denied a license four times. A deputy secretary finally approved their license while Davis spent 5 days in jail for contempt of court.
Both couples say the ordeal has caused emotional distress and emotional harm, among other problems.
