The Kentucky county clerk recognized globally for her resistance to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage continues to challenge the ruling in court.
Kim Davis became a cultural flashpoint a decade ago, attracting national media and conservative religious figures to eastern Kentucky, as she persisted in denying the licenses. She later had an audience with Pope Francis in Rome and was mocked 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 mandates to issue the licenses until a federal judge incarcerated her for contempt of court in September 2015. Davis was released after her staff distributed the licenses on her behalf but omitted 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.”
