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Ky. Court Clerk Has ‘No Legal Grounds’ To Refuse Marriages, Still Turns Couples Away
By: Associated Press
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MOREHEAD, Ky. (AP) – The office of a defiant county clerk in Kentucky has denied a marriage license to another gay couple.
On Tuesday morning, James Yates and Will Smith Jr. marched into Rowan County clerk Kim Davis’ office. It was their fifth attempt to obtain a marriage license, and they once again were turned away.
They left red-eyed and shaking, and declined to talk to reporters gathered at the office.
Davis says her office is continuing to deny marriage licenses to gay couples “under God’s authority.”
She stopped issuing licenses the day the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage.
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case, leaving Davis no legal grounds to refuse to grant licenses. A district judge could now hold her in contempt, which can carry steep fines or jail time.4
Gay couples in a northeastern Kentucky county are expected at the courthouse door Tuesday morning after the Supreme Court ruled against a defiant clerk who has refused to hand out marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The court rejected Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’ last-ditch appeal for a delay in her case Monday. On Tuesday morning, she’ll have to choose whether to issue marriage licenses, or continue to refuse them and risk being fined or even possibly jailed.
Davis stopped issuing licenses the day the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage. A federal judge ordered her to issue them, and an appeals court upheld that decision. Still, she’s turned away couples again and again.
The Supreme Court declined to intervene, leaving her no legal grounds to refuse.