A former Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples has now been ordered to pay $260,000 to cover the legal costs of a couple whom she denied nearly 10 years ago.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to fork over the six-digit figure, which is in addition to a $100,000 award that a jury ordered her to pay to the couple in September.
This new award, issued by U.S. District Judge Daniel Bunning, will cover $246,026.40 in attorneys’ fees and $14,058.30 in expenses that David Ermold and David Moore reported racking up in their lawsuit against Davis.
Bunning said he reviewed the attorneys’ detailed time records and considered rates of inflation before approving the award.
“Given the nature of this case and its lengthy procedural history, the Court finds the hours expended to be reasonable,” he wrote in his opinion.
Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian organization that represented Davis, said it will appeal the September verdict against her up to the U.S. Supreme Court following this latest ruling. That court previously declined to hear an appeal from Davis’ lawyers in the case in 2020.
“…Davis is not liable for any damages because she was entitled to a religious accommodation from issuing marriage licenses under her name and authority that conflicted with her religious beliefs,” Liberty Counsel said in a statement Tuesday.
The judge’s ruling follows Davis denying the couple a marriage license in 2015 under her personal belief that marriage is only legitimate between a man and a woman. Issuing a license to a same-sex couple as county clerk — whose responsibilities include issuing such licenses ― would violate her beliefs and rights, she argued.
Her refusal, however, violated the couple’s constitutional rights, Bunning ruled in 2022.
Davis “cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while performing her duties as an elected official,” he argued.
Davis was briefly jailed in 2015 over her refusal.