Kim Davis may have believed that she had at least one receptive Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) when she filed her petition. Perhaps Justice Clarence Thomas’ comments in a concurring opinion after the repeal of Roe v. Wade about his desire to revisit earlier SCOTUS rulings based on other precedent-setting substantive due process cases emboldened her to believe that she’d be able to convince the judges to overturn the same-sex marriage ruling from Obergefell v. Hodges, which in turn would absolve her from paying damages for civil suits against her.
Whether or not Davis had Judge Thomas on her side was irrelevant, as she discovered she lacked the support of at least four Justices required to get her case heard before the Court. The former Kentucky county clerk, a devout Christian who was jailed for five days in 2015 after repeatedly refusing to perform the duties of her job and issue a same-sex marriage license to two men, owes more than $360,000 in damages and legal fees.
Perhaps Saint Peter will judge Davis’s claim that she was acting under “God’s authority” by denying a marriage license to gay couple David Moore and David Ermold, but more earthly judges were less impressed with her legal reasoning and anti-LGBTQ+ actions as a public official. Davis had already failed in district and appellate courts before being snubbed by SCOTUS.
Marriage for Me, but Not for Thee
Davis was serving as Court Clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, when Obergefell was passed in 2015. Moore and Ermold were one of the numerous same-sex couples Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to. Davis, who has been married four times, claimed it violated her belief in the sanctity of marriage and intruded on her religious freedoms. After Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear refused to issue an executive order allowing her to continue her practice, Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses. This invoked civil rights lawsuits from Ermond and Moore, along with six other couples.
After her claim of qualified immunity was denied, a federal judge issued a stay against her refusal to issue licenses. Despite her appeal being denied by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Smith remained steadfast in her conviction that her religious beliefs were more important than the law. That earned her a contempt of court charge for defying a court order and a five-day jail sentence. Meanwhile, her deputy clerks resumed issuing licenses, including those to same-sex couples.
After Davis returned to her job, she created a new marriage license without her name on it. It became moot when incoming Governor Matt Bevin removed all clerks’ names from marriage licenses later that year. Davis was not reelected to her post in 2019.
Still on the Hook
After a federal judge ruled in 2022 that Davis had violated the constitutional rights of two couples under Obergefell, the legal door was open for personal civil lawsuits against her to proceed. A jury awarded Moore and Ermold $50,000 each in damages from Davis in September 2023. The amount received a significant bump in December of that year when a federal judge added close to $260,000 in attorney’s fees and legal expenses. Davis’s plea to SCOTUS after losing an appeal was also passed over.
Davis, represented by the Liberty Counsel, argued that her First Amendment rights protected her even while fulfilling (or not fulfilling) her capacity as an employee and representative of the state, but both the lower court and the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled she’d far exceeded a reasonable scope with her behavior. She likely put faith in having Justice Thomas as an ally after he’d targeted the Obergefell decision, along with other cases like Lawrence v. Texas and Griswold v. Connecticut, in his concurrence for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health that criticized any substantive due process decision as demonstrably erroneous. However, the High Court’s denial of Davis’ case contained no comments or dissenting opinions.
Kim Davis’s legal actions in the battle over gay marriage rights may be exhausted by the court’s decision, but those determined to have Obergefell repealed are unlikely to stop trying anytime soon. In the meantime, she’ll need to start making arrangements to pay Moore and Ermold what she owes them.
Related Resources
- Clerk Who Refused To Issue Marriage Licenses to Same-Sex Couples Ordered To Pay Damages (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
- What Is Qualified Immunity? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
- Civil Cases: The Basics (FindLaw’s Filing a Lawsuit)
