A former county clerk from Eastern Kentucky is appealing a verdict that found her liable for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Kim Davis was ordered to pay more than $360,000 to the plaintiffs and their attorneys. Her attorney argued the judgment in Ermold v. Davis was not supported by evidence, but a federal judge disagreed, ruling that David Ermold and David Moore provided sufficient evidence of emotional distress.
The former Rowan County clerk is represented by Liberty Counsel, a conservative legal group. Attorney Daniel Schmid filed a brief Monday with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, requesting the verdict be overturned.
“As she testified at trial, she wasn’t trying to discriminate against anyone, she was trying to protect her own religious rights," Schmid told WKU Public Radio. "In a country born on the will to be free, we ought to be able to respect those.”
The brief also argues that Davis was entitled to an accommodation of her religious beliefs under the First Amendment and the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Liberty Counsel ultimately wants to get the Davis case before the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of overturning its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
Lexington attorney Michael J. Gartland, who represents Ermold and Moore, said he hadn't read the appeal as of Tuesday afternoon and declined comment.
Davis drew international attention when she was briefly jailed in 2015 over her refusal to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, based on her religious belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
Davis was released after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf, but removed her name from the certificates. The Kentucky legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.
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