A former county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples was ordered to pay more than $260,000 in fees.
Kim Davis, who served as a clerk in Rowan County, must pay a total of $260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one couple who was originally denied a license, according to the Associated Press.
The sum is in addition to the $100,000 in damages a jury said she should pay the couple who sued in 2015.
Lawyers for Davis reportedly argued that the proposed attorneys’ fees and costs were too much. But U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning disagreed and said she must pay since the men won their trial, according to AP.
“Plaintiffs not only prevailed, but obtained the result sought. They sought to vindicate their fundamental right to marry and obtain marriage licenses; and they did so,” Bunning said in the order.
Liberty Counsel, the law firm representing Davis said they will appeal the ruling to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and then the U.S. Supreme Court.
“This case is far from over. Because of Kim Davis, every clerk in Kentucky now has the freedom to serve as an elected official without compromising their religious convictions and conscience,” Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement.
“The finding of liability and the Ermold damages jury verdict are unsound and easily set up this case on an eventual route to the U.S. Supreme Court, where religious freedom will be central to the argument along with the issue that the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges was wrongly decided and should be overturned,” Staver added.
The Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 gave same-sex couples the right to marry
Davis briefly spent time in jail in 2015 for failing to fulfil her duties due to her belief that marriage should be between a man and woman. She was released after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form.
The Kentucky state legislature than passed a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.
