(LifeSiteNews) — A former Kentucky county clerk has been ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in fees to attorneys representing a gay couple eight years after she began refusing to issue marriage licenses.
Kim Davis, a former clerk of court in Rowan County, Kentucky, was recently directed to pay $246,000 in attorney fees and an additional $14,000 in expenses. U.S. District Judge David Bunning issued the order on December 28.
According to a January 2 press release from Liberty Counsel, the law firm representing Davis, attorneys plan to “file a motion this month in Ermold v. Davis to ask the U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky to reverse the jury verdict against former Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis who was sued by two same-sex couples for not issuing them marriage licenses.”
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized same-sex “marriage,” Davis decided to avoid the conflict of only rejecting homosexual “marriage” licenses by choosing not to issue any marriage licenses.
The eight years that followed have resulted in ongoing legal battles for her religious freedom.
“This latest judgment now allows Liberty Counsel to ask the Court to reverse the jury’s verdict against Davis because there was insufficient evidence to award the plaintiffs monetary damages,” the release continued. “If the motion is denied, Liberty Counsel will then appeal the case to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.”
Two lawsuits were filed against Davis — Ermold v. Davis and Yates v. Davis — after the Obergefell decision. The legal firm pointed out that “two juries heard the same evidence and the same arguments in both cases.” However, the Yates case resulted in no damages “because that is what the evidence required.”
The jury in the Ermold case, though, resulted in a verdict of $50,000 for each of the two men who sought a marriage license from Davis “without any evidentiary support.” Liberty Counsel explained that such a verdict is not warranted “because there were no lost wages, and they presented no supporting testimony regarding emotional injury.” The “unsound” verdict of the Ermold case may end up being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, where — as the release states — “religious freedom will be central to the argument along with the issue that the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges was wrongly decided and should be overturned.”
Liberty Counsel further specified that Davis “is not liable for any damages because she was entitled to a religious accommodation from issuing marriage licenses under her name and authority that conflicted with her religious beliefs,” which was upheld by the Kentucky legislature in 2016 and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Davis was briefly jailed after remaining committed to her Christian convictions on marriage being between one man and one woman, sparking great controversy. The former clerk received support from Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz while former president Barack Obama and former first lady, senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton praised the persecution.
In 2018, Davis lost her re-election bid. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court declined her appeal to stop the lawsuits targeting her religious freedom.