Following the 2015 Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to two same-sex couples – a refusal that sparked international attention.
- A federal judge has ruled that a former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples who were among those to whom she wouldn’t issue marriage licenses — a refusal that sparked international attention and briefly landed her in jail in 2015.
“It is readily apparent that Obergefell recognizes Plaintiffs’ Fourteenth Amendment right to marry,” the judge wrote, referencing the landmark same-sex marriage Obergefell decision. “It is also readily apparent that Davis made a conscious decision to violate Plaintiffs’ right.” She was released only after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form. The state legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.Davis had argued that a legal doctrine called qualified immunity protected her from being
The group pointed to comments on the 2020 ruling by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, when he wrote for himself and Justice Samuel Alito.