Q Toon: Just Deserted

The Supreme Court declined to hear Kim Davis's appeal of a $100,000 judgment against her in suit brought against her by David Moore and David Ermold because she refused to issue them a marriage license.

Davis was elected Rowan County Clerk as a Democrat in 2014, a position whose job description includes the issuing of marriage licenses. When the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision made marriage equality the law of the land in 2015, the Davids applied for a marriage license; but she refused "under God's authority" and told them to go to some other county. She then went further and stopped issuing marriage licenses to all applicants to protest the prospect of having to issue them to same-sex couples.

Two different lawsuits followed: one by Moore and Ermold, who contended that she had violated their constitutional right to marry; and one challenging her refusal to issue any marriage licenses. In the latter case, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered Davis to issue licenses to both gay and straight couples. That prompted Moore and Ermold to try once again to obtain a license, but Davis and her deputies rejected that request, as well. Kentucky eventually enacted a law that would accommodate county clerks like Davis by removing their names and signatures from the forms used for marriage licenses. 

Moore and Ermold’s case against Davis went to trial, and a jury awarded each of them $50,000. Davis then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which upheld that award. It rejected Davis’ argument that requiring her to issue a marriage license to Moore and Ermold would have violated her First Amendment right to freely exercise her religion. In that court’s view, because Davis was acting on behalf of the government when she refused to issue the license, her actions were not protected by the First Amendment. 

In the meantime, Davis switched her party affiliation to Republican as the Grand Old Party rallied around her as a cause celebre. Republican Presidential candidates fought over who got to champion her case loudest (see this cartoon). Rowan County voters, however, threw her out of office in the next election.

Marriage equality advocates were quite worried that the current Supreme Court would seize on Davis's case as a vehicle to overturn Obergefell. The right-wing supermajority on the Court today includes three of the justices who ruled in the minority, two of whom, Thomas and Alito, have been very vocal in their continued opposition to the decision. They have been joined by Trump appointees who have demonstrated that their lip service to the concept of stare decisis ain't worth a 2015 penny.

This Supreme Court has already decreed that wedding cake bakers, florists, and pharmacists are free to discriminate against whomever they dislike, provided they claim that God made them do it. And along comes Davis asking to extend the privilege to public servants.

So virtually everyone was surprised when the Court refused to hear her appeal. One has to assume that the current majority thought that Davis's case made for lousy law.

They're probably waiting for another case better suited to putting an end to same-sex marriage, even when the County Clerk is pleased to assist the happy couple.