(ZENIT News / Kentucky, 07.01.2024).- David Ermold and David Moore sued Kim Davis, former Secretary of a Kentucky country in the United States, for refusing to issue a marriage licence to the same-sex couple, given her religious convictions.
Ermold and Moore had been in a relationship for 17 years, and resided in Kentucky’s Rowan county for 10 years. On July 6, 2015, they went to the county’s Secretariat to get a marriage license. Mrs Davis refused to issue it. The men presented their lawsuit on July 10.
Kim Davis became nationally famous that year for challenging the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States, which legalized marriage between same-sex individuals. In face of Davis’ refusal to sign the marriage licence given her religious beliefs, District Judge David Bunning declared her in contempt of Court and ordered her imprisonment. She spent five days in jail.
In 2022 Judge Bunning ruled the violation of Ermold’s and Moore’s Constitutional Rights and, in September 2023, he sentenced Davis to pay the couple an indemnity of US$100,000.
Then, on December 28, 2023, the U.S. District Court for East Kentucky demanded Davis the payment of fees for the lawyers’ expenses.
The Judge wrote in the sentence: “Having obtained a summary judgment on responsibility and indemnity for damages by the jury, the plaintiffs are the ‘prevailing party’ and have the right to indemnity for the lawyers’ fees and expenses,” which amounts to US$246,026.40 for the fees and US$14,058.30 for the expenses, or a total of US$260,084.70, as they wished to claim their fundamental right to marry and get a marriage license. And they did. “
The Liberty Counsel legal group, which represents Mrs Davis and specializes in cases of religious exceptions, argued that the fees were excessive, but Bunning ruled that “the hours spent and rates charged were reasonable.”
