Attorneys for Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis argued Tuesday that a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union that seeks to enforce previous court orders requiring her to issue marriage licenses to gay couples would create undue hardships if the directives were imposed while she appealed them in federal court.
"The plaintiffs are showing their true colors in this latest filing," said Mat Staver, Davis' attorney and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
Staver's response was filed Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in Ashland, Ky.
"It has never really been about a marriage license —
Rowan County has issued the licenses — it is about forcing their will on a Christian woman through contempt of court charges, jail, and monetary sanctions," he said.
"Kim wouldn't give up the job she loves, so the plaintiffs are asking the court to put the county office into receivership — removing Kim from doing her job," Staver said.
In a lawsuit filed in July, the ACLU and its eight clients have asked U.S. District Judge David Bunning to impose a range of penalties against Davis for refusing to issue same-sex licenses — ranging from fines to placing the Rowan County Clerk's Office in receivership as long as she remains on the job.
The organization's clients included two same-sex couples.
Bunning ordered Davis, 50, released from jail last month after six days for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses.
Davis is an Apostolic Christian who recently switched to the Republican Party and had been a Democratic deputy clerk for 27 years.
Bunning ruled that Davis "shall not interfere in any way, directly or indirectly, with the efforts of her deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples."
"The fact is the plaintiffs already possess marriage licenses from Rowan County that have been approved as being valid by the Kentucky governor and Kentucky attorney general," Staver said. "Kim has taken all reasonable steps and good-faith efforts to substantially comply with this court's orders."
"There is no cause for this court to punish Davis with civil fines or take the extraordinary measure of annexing the Rowan County Clerk's Office through the intrusive remedy of a receivership," he added.
"This sanction is reserved exclusively for situations of last resort-not a hammer to be used while Davis's motion to dismiss plaintiffs' complaint has been stayed, her consolidated appeals are pending in the Sixth Circuit, and licenses that are recognized as valid by the Kentucky governor and Kentucky attorney general are being issued in Rowan County."
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