Appeals Court Revives Homosexual Couple's Case Against Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis
The trial is not over for Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who went to jail for contempt of court in September 2015 while upholding her Christian faith.
A federal appeals court has revived a homosexual couple's claim for damages against Davis for refusing to sign their marriage license just six months after a federal judge junked three lawsuits against the born-again Apostolic Christian clerk, NPR reported.
Last August, U.S. District Judge David Bunning dismissed as moot a case brought by David Ermold and David Moore against Davis, citing an executive order by Kentucky Gov. Matthew Bevin. Under the order, marriage licenses no longer need to carry the name of the county clerk who issues them.
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However, the three judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed Bunning's decision on the lawsuit
They ruled that Ermold and Moore were not suing against a general policy but were seeking "damages for a particularized harm allegedly suffered by a specific set of plaintiffs."
Based on precedent, claims for damages are "retrospective in nature — they compensate for past harm. By definition, then, such claims cannot be moot," the judges said.
With this ruling, the case now goes back to Bunning, the judge who found Davis guilty of contempt of court in September 2015 and sentenced her to six days in jail for refusing to sign her name on the homosexual couple's marriage certificate, three months after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage throughout the nation.
Davis defied that ruling and refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples on religious grounds.
On Sept. 8, Bunning ordered Davis' release from jail on the condition that she would not "interfere in any way" with the issuance of marriage licenses for gay couples.
Davis returned to her post in Rowan county on Sept. 14 after agreeing to let others in the office issue marriage licenses to gay couples but without her name on them.
Liberty Counsel, which represents Davis, said it's ready to go back to court to defend her religious liberty.
The appeal ruling "keeps the case alive for a little while, but it is not a victory for the plaintiffs," said Liberty Counsel's founder Mathew Shaver in a prepared statement emailed to LifeSiteNews.
"We are confident we will prevail," Shaver said.
Similarly, Michael Gartland, the attorney for Ermold and Moore, expressed confidence that his clients will prevail this time.
"We're going to get damages, I'm sure of that," Gartland said, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. "There's been no discovery yet. I can't imagine it's a huge amount of damages, but there are damages."
