A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Kentucky clerk Kim Davis followed orders to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and that licenses altered to remove Davis’ name are likely valid.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning — the same judge who initially ordered Davis to jail for a few days in September — found that Davis has fulfilled the court’s orders not to interfere with her deputies granting marriage licenses to gay couples, according to ABC News.
After Davis left jail last year, she removed her name from marriage licenses, and Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) in December issued an executive order removing all county clerks’ names from marriage licenses.
Bunning wrote that “there is every reason to believe that any altered licenses … would be recognized under Kentucky law,” according to ABC News.
In a lawsuit filed against Davis, the American Civil Liberties Union argued that she had not followed the judge’s orders not to interfere with the process of issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, according to Reuters.
ACLU lawyer Ria Mar told Reuters that Bunning’s ruling could not be appealed and that state courts have to decide whether the new licenses are valid.
“The bottom line is that all loving couples in Rowan County can now receive marriage licenses, and we’ll continue to fight to ensure that remains the case,” Mar said.
How’s it feel to lose despite your best efforts?
You mean besides the four she herself has had?
Can I have her job? She officially does nothing and gets paid for it. Hell I could do that from here.
When I saw the headline, I thought the federal judge had said that Kim was now legally married to several dozen people.
First paragraph - operative word * likely * valid , which still doesn’t mean they are .