Kentucky homophobe Kim Davis, who denied gay couples marriage licenses, must pay over $360,000

Former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to LGBTQ+ couples in 2015. Nearly a decade later, she's facing $360,000 in damages and attorney fees.

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Davis was ordered in September to pay $100,000 in damages to one of the couples she denied a license. She was ordered on Tuesday to pay an additional $260,104 to David Ermold and David Moore to cover their attorney fees, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples following the Obergefell v. Hodges U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2015 which recognized marriage equality, claiming it would violate her religious beliefs. She then shut down all marriage license operations in her office to avoid serving same-sex couples, before she was briefly detained for her illegal actions.

U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning ruled in favor of Ermold and Moore in March, 2022, finding that Davis violated their constitutional rights. He wrote in his decision at the time that Davis could "not use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while performing her duties as an elected official."

Davis appealed the ruling to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, but was denied and sent back to Bunning and a jury to determine damages. After being awarded damages, Ermold and Moore sought for Davis to cover their legal expenses. Davis' attorneys argued that the fees would be excessive, but Bunning dismissed them, saying their claim "belies logic."

Davis is expected to appeal the $260,104 charge to the same appeals court that previously ruled against her, as well as the Supreme Court, despite the nation's highest court refusing to hear her appeal on the $100,000 damages.

Ermold told jurors during the September damages trial that he was concerned for his safety following the media attention surrounding the case, and that the controversy had exacerbated his post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I have a lot of stress and anxiety because of what happened,” he said, according to the Herald-Leader. “Ms. Davis is responsible for humiliating us in public.”

Davis, a Republican, lost her bid for reelection in 2018. Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr. now serves as the Kentucky county's clerk.