Kimberly Jean Davis (; born September 17, 1965) is an American former county clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, serving from January 2015 to January 2019. She gained public attention in August 2015 when she defied a U.S. federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Davis was elected Rowan County Clerk in 2014 and started her four-year term in January 2015. In June 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Obergefell v. Hodges, and all county clerks in Kentucky were ordered to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Citing personal religious objections to same-sex marriage, Davis began denying marriage licenses to all couples to avoid issuing them to same-sex couples. A lawsuit, Miller v. Davis, was filed, and Davis was ordered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky to start issuing marriage licenses. She appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the application to appeal was denied. Davis continued to defy the court order by refusing to issue marriage licenses "under God's authority"; she was ultimately jailed for contempt of court and was ordered to pay $360,000 to the same-sex couple who she refused to marry. Davis was released after five days in jail under the condition that she not interfere with the efforts of her deputy clerks, who had begun issuing marriage licenses to all couples in her absence. Davis then modified the Kentucky marriage licenses used in her office so that they no longer mentioned her name.
Davis's actions drew strong and mixed reactions from prominent politicians, legal experts, and religious leaders. Attorney and author Roberta A. Kaplan described Davis as "the clearest example of someone who wants to use a religious liberty argument to discriminate", while law professor Eugene Volokh maintained that an employer must try to accommodate religious employees' beliefs. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said that Davis's imprisonment was part of the "criminalization of Christianity", while Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin compared Davis's refusal to obey the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to Alabama Governor George Wallace's "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" in 1963. A few weeks after her release from jail, Davis met with Pope Francis in Washington, D.C. The Holy See Press Office later noted that the pope met with many others and said that the meeting was not a form of support for Davis's actions. She has been satirized in popular culture; she was parodied in a Funny or Die video, as well as on Saturday Night Live. She was defeated by Democratic challenger Elwood Caudill Jr. in the November 6, 2018, election and vacated the office on January 7, 2019.
Career
Chief deputy clerk: 1991–2015 Kim Davis was born on September 17, 1965, in Morehead, Kentucky. By 1991, she was serving as chief deputy clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, reporting to her mother, Rowan County Clerk Jean W. Bailey. Davis's 2011 compensation was in wages with an additional in overtime and other compensation. She earned more than other chief deputies in the county, and some county employees and residents complained to the county's governing body, the Fiscal Court, that the clerk's staff's wages were too high, with total compensation for five employees being about $198,000. The Fiscal Court then voted to cut the 2012 budget for wages from $300,000 to $200,000.
County clerk: 2015–2019 After her mother announced she would not run for re-election in 2014, Davis filed as a Democratic candidate for county clerk. At a candidates' forum, Davis stated she felt she was best qualified for the position because of her 26 years of experience in the clerk's office.
Davis narrowly won the Democratic primary election, defeating Elwood Caudill Jr., a deputy clerk in the Rowan County property valuation administrator's office, by 23 votes and advancing to the general election against Republican John Cox. Davis won the election, with Cox subsequently alleging that nepotism was to blame for his loss. After winning the race, Davis told The Morehead News, "My words can never express the appreciation but I promise to each and every one that I will be the very best working clerk that I can be and will be a good steward of their tax dollars and follow the statutes of this office to the letter."
Davis took the oath of office as the county clerk of Rowan County on , 2015, beginning a four-year term slated to end on , 2019. As clerk in 2015, Davis received an annual salary of .
Same-sex marriage license controversy Background
On , 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case of Obergefell v. Hodges, holding that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Fourteen counties in three Southern states continued to deny marriage licenses for same-sex marriage. The Alabama Supreme Court allowed the probate judges of ten counties in Alabama to deny such marriage licenses, the clerk of one Texas county chose to resign rather than issue such licenses, and the clerks of two counties in Kentucky were not issuing licenses due to paperwork delays. Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear ordered all Kentucky county clerks to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses immediately.
Davis's reaction to same-sex marriage ruling
Davis contacted Beshear, asking for an executive order to protect clerks who have moral objections against personally issuing such marriage licenses, as Kentucky law requires county clerks to issue marriage licenses in their names. She began turning away gay couples from her county office who were seeking marriage licenses. David Ermold and David Moore, a same-sex couple from Morehead, Kentucky and alumni of Morehead State University, released video footage on July 7, 2015, of Davis refusing to issue them a marriage license and requesting that they turn off their camera. The video went viral overnight.
The Family Foundation of Kentucky, a local political organization, held a protest rally against the ruling at the State Capitol in Frankfort on August 22, 2015, attended by several thousand people. The clerks of the two other Kentucky counties declined to speak to the rally crowd, but Davis spoke briefly, saying, "I need your prayers ... to continue to stand firm in what we believe." At a competing event several blocks away organized by the Fairness Campaign of Louisville, attendees celebrated the Supreme Court's decision and called upon government officials to uphold the law.
Rather than issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Davis began denying marriage licenses to all couples.
Lawsuits against Davis
Six couples who were denied marriage licenses by Davis sued her in her official capacity as county clerk. Four couples were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kentucky, and each couple had separate legal representation. The four couples represented by the ACLU, two same-sex couples and two opposite-sex couples, filed the first lawsuit against Davis (Miller v. Davis) on July 2, 2015. On July 10, 2015, David Ermold and David Moore (who had shot the viral video) next filed suit against Davis, represented by Joseph Buckles and Thomas Szczygielski (Ermold v. Davis); James Yates and William Smith Jr., represented by Rene Heinrich of the Heinrich Firm PLLC and Kash Stilz of Roush & Stilz PSC, filed a suit against Davis on August 25, 2015 (Yates v. Davis).
Federal district judge David L. Bunning of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, the judge assigned to the cases, held hearings with Davis in Ashland, at which she was the only witness. Davis argued tearfully that issuing licenses under her name violated her beliefs, citing her religious rights under the First Amendment: "It wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment decision", she said. "It was thought out, and I sought God on it." Davis had already decided against resigning from her post, as doing so, she said, would only leave the matter to her deputies: "If I resign, I solve nothing. It helps nobody." Governor Beshear stated that he would not call a special session of the General Assembly to address Davis's concerns, while other state legislators believed that such a session could accommodate Davis with possible new legislation. Davis's attorneys, from the Maitland, Florida–based law firm Liberty Counsel, stated that the plaintiffs were free to drive to other counties to obtain their same-sex marriage licenses, with one adding, "This case is not about these plaintiffs' desires to get married, the case is about [their] desire to force Kim Davis to approve and authorize their marriage in violation of her constitutionally protected religious beliefs." Davis and her attorneys then sued Governor Beshear for ordering her to violate her religious beliefs instead of trying to accommodate them, arguing that Beshear, not Davis, should be held accountable for any legal damages from the ACLU lawsuit.
On August 12, Bunning issued a temporary stay barring Davis from "applying her 'no marriage licenses' policy to future marriage license requests". Before the stay expired, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit refused to extend that ruling for an appeal. "It cannot be defensibly argued that the holder of the Rowan County clerk's office ... may decline to act in conformity with the United States Constitution", the three-judge panel wrote unanimously in their refusal, continuing, "There is thus little or no likelihood that the clerk in her official capacity will prevail on appeal."
Appeal
Liberty Counsel and Davis filed an emergency application to appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. On August 31, 2015, in a one-line order, the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, preventing Davis from legally continuing to deny marriage licenses. In response to the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to grant her stay request, Davis stated:
Davis continued to defy Bunning's court order after the Supreme Court's refusal. The following morning, several couples sought to obtain marriage licenses, but Davis turned them away, saying she was acting "under God's authority". Some in the media questioned whether Davis, having been married four times and only recently converted, was acting hypocritically in the application of her beliefs.
Contempt of court and jailing
Judge Bunning ordered Davis and her six deputy clerks to appear before him on after the six couples sought to have her held in contempt of court. Bunning ruled in the plaintiffs' favor and held Davis in contempt. The ACLU asked the court to fine Davis, but Bunning ordered her remanded in custody after the hearing. The judge said Davis would remain there until she complied with the court's order to issue marriage licenses. Bunning then spoke with each of the deputy clerks who reported to Davis. Only her son, Nathan Davis, told the judge he refused to comply with the court's order to start issuing marriage licenses; Bunning declined to hold him in contempt. After the hearing, U.S. Marshals transported Davis to the Carter County Detention Center in Grayson.
On Friday, September 4, the first day her office was open during her incarceration, Davis's deputy clerks began issuing marriage licenses to all couples. James Yates and William Smith Jr. (independently suing Davis) were the first couple in Rowan County to receive a marriage license since Obergefell. They were soon followed by other couples who were plaintiffs against Davis.