Kentucky Clerk Refuses To Issue Marriage License To Gay Couples In Heated Exchange

The woman says she holds a religious objection to issuing the licenses.
Credit: Hillary Thornton

WASHINGTON -- A Kentucky county clerk on Tuesday refused to issue marriage licenses for two same-sex couples despite a Supreme Court ruling ordering the clerk to do so.

A video posted to Facebook by WKYT shows the gay couples repeatedly demanding that the clerk, Kim Davis, issue them marriage licenses.

"We are not issuing marriage licenses today," Davis says in the video.

"Under whose authority are you not issuing licenses?" asks one of the men.

"Under God's authority," Davis responds.

The Rowan County clerk then asks the men to leave, before retreating to the back of the office herself.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has defied court orders by refusing to issue marriage licenses. Here's raw footage of the confrontation. http://goo.gl/jYNVXo

Posted by WKYT on Tuesday, September 1, 2015

UPDATE: The lawyers for the same-sex couples who originally sued Davis filed a motion Tuesday to hold the county clerk in contempt of court for refusing to issue them a marriage license.

According to a copy of the filing obtained by Michael Scarcella of The National Law Journal, the couples are not seeking to compel Davis to issue the licenses through incarceration. Instead, they asked the court to impose "financial penalties sufficiently serious and increasingly onerous to compel Davis’ immediate compliance without further delay."

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