Kim Davis, the former county clerk in Rowan County, Ken., grabbed headlines and became the darling of the right wing back in the summer of 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples requesting them following the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. She said that issuing the licenses to same-sex couples was in conflict with her religious belief that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

Davis — who has been married four times to three men and has four children (two with her first husband and twins with her second husband although they were conceived while she was still married to her first husband) — was so adamant about defending the sanctity of marriage against same-sex couples that she was willing to spend five days in jail on contempt of court charges for refusing to issue the licenses.

Today (Tuesday, Jan. 2) Davis — who lost her bid for re-election in 2018 — was back in the headlines again after federal District Judge David L. Bunning ordered her to pay about $260,000 in attorney fees and expenses to David Moore and David Ermold, the first couple to whom she refused to issue a marriage license in 2015.

Moore and Ermold sued Davis for violating their civil rights, and on March 18, 2022, a jury found that Davis had, indeed, violated not only their civil rights but also the civil rights of another same-sex couple to whom she refused to issue a marriage license.

Then in September 2023, Bunning ordered Davis to pay the two men $100,000 in damages, writing 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.” Today’s ruling brings her total owed to about $360,000.

According to the Courier Journal in Louisville, Ken., Davis’ attorneys with the Liberty Counsel have argued that there was not sufficient evidence to support awarding the two men damages, and plan to ask the court to reverse the jury’s verdict. If that motion is denied, Liberty Counsel will appeal the case to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

— Tammye Nash