Turn slowly and can be pricey
Remember Kim Davis?
A federal jury has awarded $100,000 to a Kentucky couple who sued the former county clerk Kim Davis over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Davis, the former Rowan county clerk, drew international attention when she was briefly jailed in 2015 over her refusal, which she based on her belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
A jury in Ashland, Kentucky, awarded David Ermold and David Moore each $50,000 after deliberating on Wednesday, according to lawyers for Davis. A second couple who sued, James Yates and Will Smith, were awarded no damages on Wednesday by Judge David Bunning.
Bunning sent Davis to jail for five days in 2015 after holding her in contempt of court. She was parodied on Saturday Night Live and embraced by conservative politicians who traveled to Kentucky to support her.
Here’s a novel idea:
Bunning ruled last year that Davis violated the constitutional rights of the two couples. In the ruling, Bunning reasoned that Davis “cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while performing her duties as an elected official”.
It’s not clear if Davis can put up a GoFundMe to help pay her judgment. Around the time Davis went to jail, and in response to another case involving discrimination against same-sex couples, the site updated its terms of service to deny access to campaigns “in defense of formal charges or claims of heinous crimes, violent, hateful, sexual or discriminatory acts.”
That language seems to have been updated and broadened to prohibit “User Content that reflects, incites or promotes behavior that we deem, in our sole discretion, to be an abuse of power or in support of terrorism, hate, violence, harassment, bullying, discrimination, terrorist financing or intolerance of any kind reflects an abuse of power relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, disabilities or diseases.”
Maybe Mike Huckabee can help. Again.
I’m headed to Kentucky on Tuesday to stand with #KimDavis. We must end the criminalization of Christianity! #ImWithKim
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) September 3, 2015