In appealing her case, Rowan, Kentucky
County Clerk Kim Davis says she would suffer “irreversible harm”
if she's forced to issue a marriage license to a gay couple.
Last week, Davis defied a federal
judge's decision ordering her to issue marriage licenses to all
qualified couples.
The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) of Kentucky filed a lawsuit against Davis on behalf of five
couples after she decided to stop issuing marriage licenses to all
couples rather than serve gay couples.
Following the Supreme Court's ruling
striking down marriage bans in all 50 states, Davis pledged never to
issue a marriage licenses to a gay couple, saying it would be a
violation of her Christian faith.
“It's a deep-rooted conviction; my
conviction won't allow me to do that,” Davis said. “It goes
against everything I hold dear, everything sacred in my life.”
Despite U.S. District Judge David L.
Bunning's ruling ordering Davis to comply with the Supreme Court's
decision, Davis' office turned away two gay couples Thursday morning.
Bunning this week stayed his ruling,
giving Davis until Monday, August 31 to file an appeal with the Sixth
Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, the only federal appellate
court in the nation to rule that state bans excluding gay couples
from marriage are constitutional.
In its emergency filing with the
appeals court, Davis' lawyers argue that she “faces significant,
irrevocable and irreversible harm if she is forced to authorize and
approve even one SSM license with her name on it, against her
religious conscience.”