Eleven years ago, a Kentucky county clerk of court found herself in the national spotlight. Kim Davis defied a federal court order and refused to issue a marriage license to two men, David Ernmold and David Moore. Rather than comply with the court’s order, she directed her office to cease issuing marriage licenses to all couples.
Her refusal came on the heels of the SCOTUS decision (Obergefell v. Hodges) in June of that year, which held that marriage was a fundamental right granted to same-sex couples by the U.S. Constitution.
Citing her Christian faith as justification for her actions, she became the overnight darling of the evangelical branch of American Christianity as a defender of the “sanctity of marriage.”
Religious and secular media were quick to question Davis’ commitment to the “sanctity of marriage” by pointing out that she has been married four times and divorced three times. According to a 2015 U.S. News and World Report article, Davis’ marital history raised “questions of hypocrisy and selective application of the Bible to her life.”
Four couples, including Ernmold and Moore, took Davis to federal court for violating their constitutional rights. She lost that case and was ordered to pay the couple $100,000 in damages plus more than $260,000 in legal fees.
Thus began legal wrangling which continues to the present day.
Attorney Michael J. Gartland, representing the couple, has filed a suit alleging that Davis tried to hide assets even before the original court decision in an effort to avoid paying the court ordered penalties.
Initially, Davis denied making such a transfer, but in January she admitted transferring property she and her brother had inherited from her mother to other family members.
According to an ActionNews5 (Memphis, Tennessee) report, Gartland’s suit “cites a civil procedure rule which states, ‘an evasive or incomplete disclosure, answer, or response must be treated as a failure to disclose, answer, or respond.’”
As reported by WKYT (Lexington, Kentucky), the couple’s attorney said, “They [Ernmold and Moore] are in favor of filing this lawsuit because this was the first real opportunity to go after her assets.”
“This is a slam dunk as far as I’m concerned,” Gartland said. “These transfers will get undone, and it will be as if her brother and her own them again … we will have a lien on these three properties and we will move to settle to get our clients paid.”
This development is the latest in a long stream of setbacks for Davis, who has continued her war against same-sex marriage. Last year she petitioned SCOTUS to dismiss the money she was ordered to pay Ernmold and Moore and reverse Obergefell v. Hodges, the case ruling that made marriage equality the law of the land. The court declined to hear her petition in November.
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
