Dem
51
GOP
49
Remember Kim Davis, the former Clerk of Rowan County, KY, who famously refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015, after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages? She is an evangelical Christian who said that her personal religious belief in a Supreme Being trumped the Supreme Court. So she refused to sign the marriage licenses of same-sex couples in the county. This meant they couldn't get married.
Some of them went to court. Federal Judge David Bunning ordered her to sign the marriage licenses and she refused. Bunning then found her in contempt of court and gave her an all-expenses-paid 5-day vacation in a Kentucky jail. Bunning is a staunch conservative and was appointed to the bench by George W. Bush. He is the son of the late Kentucky senator (and baseball player) Jim Bunning (R).
When Davis got out of the clink and went home, two more Davids, David Ermold and David Moore, who were denied a marriage license by Davis, decided to sue her. In Sept. 2023, a jury awarded them $100,000 in damages. That was the good news. Now David #1 (Bunning) is back in the act. He ordered Davis to pay Davids #2 and #3 another $260,104 in attorneys' costs and fees. Thus the bill for her "brave" (but illegal) stand is now a tad above $360,000.
Davis is represented by the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit group that provides pro bono litigation services for Christians who don't want to obey federal laws because they feel their religion entitles them to do so. They are planning to appeal the case. (V)