DailyNews. The Kentucky court clerk who denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples has cost her state nearly a quarter-million dollars.
A federal appeals court Friday affirmed Kentucky must pay attorney’s fees to four couples who had sued Kim Davis for refusing to issue the licences after marriage equality became law in her state.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld a lower-court ruling awarding $224,000 in legal costs to the couples, who had been denied marriage licenses by the former Rowan County, Ky., clerk.
Friday’s ruling, which decided that the Commonwealth of Kentucky is responsible for paying the tab, “brings another form of vindication for the Rowan County couples who continued the good fight long after marriage equality became the law of the land,” Ria Tabacco Mar, senior staff attorney for the ACLU, said in a statement.
Davis’ defiant act of civil disobedience turned her into a conservative hero, after she cited “God’s authority” as a reason to break the law.
She was lavishly praised for her courage by top-tier Republicans such as then-presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and then-candidate, now Republican Kentucky governor Matt Bevin.
Bevin even tweeted a photo of a visit he paid Davis in jail, saying that he “was honored to have Kim Davis and her husband ask for me to visit them in the Carter County jail today.”
