Gay Couples Can Sue Clerk Who Denied Them Marriage Licenses, Rules US Court
Seven years after a former county clerk from Kentucky refused to issue marriage license to gay couples, a court in the US has cleared the decks her to be sued for damages.US District Judge David Bunning said that former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis had violated the rights of the same sex couples in 2015, when she refused to issue marriage licenses to them citing her Christian religious beliefs.
The court also rejected a request from Davis seeking immunity from being sued. Davis had stopped issuing marriage licenses to all couples after the landmark US Supreme Court Obergefell v.
Hodges judgment in 2015 that made same-sex marriages legal. Davis found her fifteen seconds of fame when the news of her refusal to marry gay couples was reported across the world.
Gay couples sued her and she spent five days in jail for contempt of court, before her office started issuing marriage licenses in her absence.
