Liberty Counsel To Sixth Circuit: Clerk Kim Davis Will Suffer “Irreversible Harm” If She Signs Even One Marriage License

Saying that Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis will suffer “significant irreversible harm” if she’s forced to sign a single same-sex marriage license, last night the Liberty Counsel filed an emergency stay demand with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The filing followed federal Judge David Bunning’s amending of his earlier temporary stay order to add an August 31st expiration date unless the Sixth Circuit acts sooner. Equality Case files has the latest appeal:

Plaintiffs will not suffer irreparable and irreversible injury if resolution is postponed to await this Court’s decision on the merits. This conclusion comports with the stay orders pending appeal entered by this Court in DeBoer and Tanco, and by Western District of Kentucky Judge Heyburn in Bourke. But, since those stay orders prohibited the issuance of SSM licenses or recognition of same-sex “marriage” in their entirety, the potential purported harm to Plaintiffs here is far less. In stark contrast, Davis faces significant, irrevocable, and irreversible harm if she is forced to authorize and approve even one SSM license with her name on it, against her religious conscience, for “it is well-settled that ‘loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.’”

Not the continued use of “marriage” scare quotes. (Tipped by JMG reader Rob)