Judge: $360K judgment stands against Kentucky clerk who denied same-sex marriage licenses

A federal judge has refused to overturn judgments totaling $360,104 against a former Kentucky county official who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Attorneys for Kim Davis argued a gay couple suing her had not provided sufficient evidence of the damages they requested for emotional distress.

Davis’ attorneys asked U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning to set aside a jury verdict awarding the men a total of $100,000.

If Bunning had done that, it would have negated a ruling requiring Davis to pay attorneys for the two men a total of $260,104 in fees and expenses.

In a ruling filed Tuesday, Bunning refused to set aside the jury verdict.

Bunning said Rowan County residents David Ermold and David Moore provided sufficient evidence of how Davis harmed them.

“The evidence here was not slight in any respect. Nor was it unspecific or illusory,” Bunning wrote. “Rather, it established that the Plaintiffs suffered actual injury in the form of emotional distress.”

Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal group representing Davis, will appeal the ruling, according to Holly Meade, spokeswoman for the organization.

Liberty Counsel ultimately wants to get Davis’ case before the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of overturning its 2015 decision that same-sex couples have the right to marry.

The case involving Davis is rooted in that decision.

Kim Davis, same-sex marriage license timeline

Davis was county clerk in Rowan County at the time. She made national headlines in the summer of 2015 because she would not issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

Davis, an evangelical Christian, said she believes marriage is only legitimate between a man and a woman and argued that issuing a marriage license under her name to a same-sex couple would violate her religious beliefs and rights.

A clerk in her office later issued licenses to gay couples, and the Kentucky legislature ultimately changed the state marriage form so it doesn’t display the name of the county clerk.

Several gay couples sued Davis for refusing to issue licenses to them, arguing she subjected them to public embarrassment and emotional distress.

It has taken years to resolve the claims of two couples because of multiple appeals by Davis along the way.

Bunning ruled in 2022 that Davis violated the couples’ rights.

“Ultimately, this Court’s determination is simple — 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,” Bunning wrote at the time.

That left only the question of whether Davis would have to pay the couples.

Judge rules Kim Davis to pay for not issuing same-sex marriage license

At a trial last September, one jury pool decided Davis didn’t have to pay one couple, James Yates and Will Smith.

However, a separate panel ruled that Davis should pay Ermold and Moore $50,000 each, which meant she also had to pay the attorneys representing them.

That led to the request by Davis to set aside the verdict.

Davis’ attorneys argued that Ermold and Moore did not present any testimony by medical or mental-health experts to support their claims that Davis caused them emotional distress, relying instead on their own “brief testimony that their individual feelings were hurt.”

The men also testified they had not sought treatment for emotional distress related to Davis’ actions and didn’t testify about observing problems in each other resulting from her actions, Davis’ attorneys said.

Her attorneys also pointed out the men said they didn’t know how to place a dollar figure on the pain they said she caused them.

Davis is represented by Mathew D. Staver, Daniel J. Schmid, Horatio G. Mihet and A.C. Donahue.

However, attorneys for the two men argued they presented ample evidence of the distress they suffered as a result of Davis’ actions.

Ermold, for instance, testified that Davis’ actions inflamed anti-gay bias in the community, leaving him in a “perpetual state of fear,” and worried someone will set fire to his house or harm his animals.

“I have a lot of stress and anxiety because of what has happened,” Ermold testified.

Moore testified that being deprived of a marriage license by Davis made them “feel like you’re less than a person, like you’re just subhuman.”

Lexington attorneys Michael J. Gartland and Joseph D. Buckles represent Moore and Ermold.

Bunning said in his ruling that the law required him to give deference to the jury’s decision in favor of Ermold and Moore unless the panel “reached a seriously erroneous result.”

That wasn’t the case, Bunning said, ruling that Ermold and Moore presented sufficient evidence and that the jury made a reasonable decision based on that.

The case was not one of simply hurt feelings, the judge said.

“The detailed testimony establishes ongoing stress, anguish, humiliation and tension,” Bunning said in the ruling.