The Lexington Herald-Leader reports:
Lawyers for former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who garnered national attention nearly a decade ago when she refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, argued that Davis’ court-ordered payment to a couple to whom she denied a license should be tossed.
Davis’ lawyers say she is not liable to pay more than $360,000 in damages for the legal fees and emotional distress she caused a gay couple by denying them a marriage license in 2015 because, acting in her role as a government employee, she had sovereign and qualified immunity.
“Could they get injunctive relief against her in a personal capacity? Absolutely. (But) they are coming after Kim Davis outside of her governmental ability,” Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Christian-based Liberty Counsel, which is representing Davis, told U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Helene White, Chad Readler and Andre Mathis in oral arguments.
Courthouse News reports:
William Powell, with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, appeared on behalf of the plaintiffs and argued that the evidence in the record was sufficient to support the jury’s award. U.S. Circuit Judge Chad Readler, an appointee of President Donald Trump, asked whether Davis knew that the plaintiffs’ right to a marriage license was a clearly established law, given how soon the incident took place after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.
Powell pointed to the language of the decision, which stated that local officials had to issue same-sex couples marriages licenses in the same way it would other couples, and said a local official would understand that meaning. Davis also received a letter from the governor’s office directing her to issue the licenses no matter her personal beliefs, Powell argued, and evidence in the record points to her speaking about the matter with a county attorney who also said she had to issue the licenses.
The Kentucky Lantern reports:
After the hearing, Davis’ lawyer, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver, told the Lantern that his team’s goal is for the appeal to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The case would provide the justices an opportunity to re-evaluate the decision that guaranteed gay couples equal marriage rights on the same grounds that the court in 2022 used to overturn the federal right to abortion, Staver said.
Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that guaranteed same-sex couples marriage rights, is “on the same shifting sand” that doomed Roe v. Wade, said Staver. “I think … it’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when’ Obergefell will be overturned,” Staver told the Lantern. “I have no doubt that Obergefell will be overturned, and the issue will be returned back to the states as it was before 2015.”
There much more at all links above.
State requests for the Supreme Court to overturn the 2015 ruling “Obergefell v. Hodges,” like what the Idaho House passed this week, hold no weight, but former county clerk Kim Davis is still in court.
www.jezebel.com/yes-marriage…— Jezebel (@jezebeldotcom.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 5:40 PM
“I think … it’s not a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when’ Obergefell will be overturned,” Kim Davis’ lawyer told the Lantern. “I have no doubt that Obergefell will be overturned, and the issue will be returned back to the states as it was before 2015.”
kentuckylantern.com/2025/01/30/k…
— Sarah Ladd (@sarahelizabethladd.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 3:43 PM
The former Kentucky clerk made national headlines in 2015 when she refused to comply with a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that guaranteed the right to marry for same-sex couples. www.courthousenews.com/kim-davis-as…
— Courthouse News (@courthousenews.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 1:41 PM