Former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, center, with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, left, and attorney Mat Staver, founder of the Liberty Counsel, the Christian law firm representing Davis, at her side, cries out after being released from the Carter County Detention Center, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015, in Grayson, Ky. Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, was released Tuesday after days behind bars. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
A federal jury decided Wednesday that former county clerk Kim Davis owes $100,000 in damages to a same-sex couple to whom she refused to provide a marriage license on three separate occasions.
Jurors awarded zero damages to a second couple who established that Davis violated their rights by denying them a marriage license.
Davis had been the clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, when she was jailed for six days after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the grounds that following the law offended her religious beliefs. Davis’ refusal conflicted directly with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges in which the Court recognized same-sex marriage as a constitutional right.
Two couples for whom Davis denied marriage licenses on multiple occasions — David Ermold and David Moore, and James Yates and William Smith – sued Davis in separate cases, each for violating their civil rights.
Both sets of plaintiffs won their lawsuits at the summary judgment phase in March 2022. The judge who granted the summary judgment motions, George W. Bush appointee U.S. District Judge David Bunning, continued to preside over the case as it proceeded to trial on the issue of damages.
Liberty Counsel, the organization that represented Davis, argued that it was not liable for damages because Davis was entitled to a religious accommodation. In a statement Wednesday, Liberty Counsel slammed Ermold, Moore, Yates, and Smith for creating a “shame case by intentionally targeting Kim Davis because of her religious beliefs.”
After 45 minutes of deliberations, the jury returned a verdict of zero damages in Yates v. Davis, and a verdict of $50,000 each to David Ermold and David Moore, who were denied a marriage license three times.
Liberty Counsel acknowledged in its statement Wednesday that despite the jury’s decision, the case has “potential to go to the U.S. Supreme Court where Kim Davis will argue for religious freedom and also that Obergefell should be overturned.”
“Three of the five justices in the Obergefell majority are no longer on the Court,” the statement noted, echoing Justice Clarence Thomas’ words from a 2020 appeal that Davis attempted to bring before the justices.
“The Court has created a problem that only it can fix,” said Thomas at the time about the Obergefell decision.
Chief Litigation Counsel Harry Mihet, who argued the case on Davis’ behalf, reacted to the jury’s decision in the Yates case: “We are grateful and relieved that one of the two juries has provided Kim Davis with the complete vindication that she has been waiting for so long to receive. We are prayerfully awaiting the result from the second jury.”
Liberty Counsel announced its intent to appeal the damages verdict Thursday. In a statement posted on its website, the group said it would request a judgment notwithstanding the verdict on the grounds that, “the jury had no basis or evidence to support their verdict,” and would next take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“This Ermold jury verdict is unsound and easily sets this case up for an eventual route to the U.S. Supreme Court where religious freedom will be central to the argument along with the issue that the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges was wrongly decided and should be overturned, ” the statement continued.
Liberty Counsel characterized the Ermold plaintiffs’ demand as “damages for hurt feelings.”
Michael Gartland, the attorney who successfully argued on behalf of Ermold and Moore, was undaunted.
“I have beaten them at the Sixth Circuit three times already in this case and will win the fourth one,” Gartland predicted in an email to Law&Crime Thursday.
Indeed, Davis has a losing record before the Sixth Circuit including a 2016 dismissal of her lawsuit against multiple state officials and a 2022 ruling that she was not entitled to qualified immunity from the Ermold and Yates lawsuits.
Editor’s note: This story initially reported that Davis owed $50,000 in damages.
This piece was updated from its original version to include comment from counsel.
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