A former Kentucky county clerk is being ordered to pay $100,000 to a local couple who sued the clerk after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Kim Davis, the former clerk of Rowan county in eastern Kentucky, rose to national prominence for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 2015, arguing that such actions violated her religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Davis was briefly jailed on contempt of court charges for refusing to issue the licenses. She was later released when her staff issued the marriage certificates, but without her name on the form.
Last year, a federal judge ruled that Davis violated the constitutional rights of the two gay couples who sued her.
US district judge David Bunning said that 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”.
This week, in a trial to determine damages Davis must pay, a federal jury ordered Davis to pay $50,000 each to David Ermold and David Moore, according to lawyers of Davis, the Associated Press reported.
The second couple who sued, James Yates and Will Smith, were awarded no damages.
During this week’s trial, Davis argued that she was protected from litigation due to qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects government officials from lawsuits accusing them of violating someone’s constitutional rights.
Davis’s defense team said in a Wednesday press release that they “look forward to appealing this decision and taking this case to the US supreme court”.
But the US supreme court already declined to hear an appeal from Davis’s lawyers on the matter in 2020, AP reported.
Chris Hartman, executive director of the Kentucky-based LGBTQ+ organization Fairness campaign, applauded Wednesday’s ruling in an interview with the Guardian.
“Discriminatory actions have consequences,” said Hartman.
“When you are a representative of the government, you must follow the law and treat everyone with dignity and respect, including LGBTQ Americans,” Hartman added.
Hartman called the current treatment of LGBTQ+ communities in Kentucky “abysmal”, adding that trans Kentuckians face an onslaught of discrimination via anti-trans laws.
In June, Kentucky’s Republican-leaning legislature passed sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ laws, banning gender-affirming care for those under 18 and prohibiting trans children from using the bathroom that best suits their gender identity at school.
“We, in our commonwealth, have been swept up in the national fervor against trans kids. Our community is hurting, scared, and is uncertain of its future,” Hartman said.
“Sadly, our states are making refugees of their own residents, forcing LGBTQ people and their families, particularly trans kids, to cross state lines [for] refuge and safety,” he said.
Hartman noted that local communities are passing fairness ordinances that ban LGBTQ+ discrimination, a hopeful sign.
“[It highlights] the disconnect between local communities, constituencies and state representatives who do not represent the value of Kentuckians,” he said.
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English (US)