Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples back in 2015, has been handed a huge legal bill.
The case stems back to 2015. In the wake of the US Supreme Court deciding that same-sex couples could wed, the Rowan County based clerk ordered that no marriage licenses would be granted in her jurisdiction because of her fundamentalist Christian beliefs.
Davis was briefly jailed in 2015 when she continued to refuse to issue marriage licenses, even after a judge ordered her to lift her ban. The position Davis held was an elected position, and she lost her position at the next election in 2017.
Later gay couples David Ermold and David Moore took Davis to court suing her for discrimination, and they won. The court already ordered Davis to pay USD$100,000 in damages, and now the court has also ordered Davis to pay the couple’s legal costs in the case that has run for many years.
The lawyer’s fees have come in at USD$260,000, leaving Davis with a total bill of USD$360,000 – that’s the equivalent of AUD$537,200.
Lawyers representing Kim Davis had argued that the legal costs for the plaintiffs were unreasonably high, but Judge David L. Bunning ruled that they were acceptable.
“The Court is mindful that in this case, Plaintiffs not only prevailed, but obtained the result sought. They sought to vindicate their fundamental right to marry and obtain marriage licenses; and they did so,” wrote Bunning.
“The Court has reviewed the Plaintiffs’ submissions and finds that the hours expended, and the rates charged to be reasonable.” he wrote in his decision.
Davis’s legal team had hoped to appeal the original ruling at the US Supreme Court, but the court opted not to hear the case. Her team have indicated they will now lodge an appeal against the decision to award costs.
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