Lifts contempt order because deputies issuing licenses

GRAYSON,  Ky. – The federal judge who jailed a Kentucky county clerk for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples freed her Tuesday on the ground her deputies had complied with his order.

Clerk Kim Davis, who has become a national heroine to gay marriage foes, was released from the Carter County Detention Center after five days behind bars for contempt of a court order requiring her office to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning said he was releasing Davis on the condition that she not “interfere in any way, directly or indirectly, with the efforts of her deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples.”

Bunning said he would impose “appropriate sanctions” if Davis tries to stop her deputies from granting licenses to gay couples. They began issuing licenses to same-sex couples on Friday.

The judge jailed Davis Thursday for defying his order to issues marriage licenses to gay as well as straight couples on religious liberty grounds. She said she was acting on “God’s authority” in disobeying the judge and June’s U.S. Supreme Court decision authorizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

Bunning said a report by lawyers for the four couples who sued Davis said that five of the six deputies — all but Davis’ son — are issuing licenses, as promised under oath that they would do.

“The court is therefore satisfied that the Rowan County Clerk’s Office is fulfilling its obligation to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples, consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Obergefell and this court’s August 12, 2015 order,” Bunning said. “For these reasons, the Court’s prior contempt sanction against Defendant Davis is hereby lifted.”

Davis and her lawyers did not immediately respond to questions about whether she will comply with the order