Last week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state of Kentucky must pay attorney’s fees to four couples who sued Kim Davis for denying them their marriage licenses. The Court upheld a lower-court ruling awarding $224,000 in legal costs to the couples. Although her former role as the Rowan County clerk gave her sovereign immunity from being sued, the court ruled that Davis can be sued in her individual capacity, and now the evangelical law firm that represented her is scrambling to raise funds for a potential new round of court battles.
In an email fired off this Friday, the Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver wrote that Davis "risked everything she had rather than violate her conscience. She refused to endorse what God prohibits by issuing marriage licenses with her signature to same-sex couples."
Staver declared that his law firm, which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, will continue to defend Davis because "her future is in real jeopardy" as a result of the court's ruling.
"Not only that, but radical LGBT activists and their allies want revenge," Staver wrote. "Will you donate now to help Kim through to victory—and to help Liberty Counsel defend freedom, life and marriage in other cases across America?"
Davis first made headlines in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples when she was serving her elected role as clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky. According to Davis, to do so would violate her Christian beliefs, despite the fact that the Supreme Court had previously ruled gay marriage to be the law of the land.
“At the end of the day, she will ultimately prevail. She had no hostility to anyone, given that she stopped issuing all marriage licenses,” Staver said in an interview with NBC News, referring to Davis's tactic of halting the approval of all marriage licenses to avoid approving licenses to gay couples.
“The broader issue is what accommodation a court should provide someone based on their religious beliefs,” he added. “It’s a matter of time before such a case goes squarely before the Supreme Court.”
Davis lost her bid to be reelected as Rowan County Clerk last year.
