Judge Orders Kentucky Clerk to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses, Then Stays His Order

A Kentucky county clerk appears to have earned more time to continue refusing marriage licenses for same-sex couples in the state, following a federal judge's decision on the controversy earlier this week.

Monday was the deadline for Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to persuade US District Judge David Bunning of why she should receive a delay in issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals, after he had ruled last week that she provide them to two same-sex couples. While Bunning determined that Davis should not receive a delay, he opted to stay this ruling because of an appeal she is pursuing in the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals.

"If the Court decided to delay enforcement of its Order while Davis pursues an unpromising appeal, it would essentially give Plaintiffs a favorable legal ruling with no teeth and prolong the likely violation of their constitutional rights," Bunning wrote, according to the Associated Press. Nevertheless, this is precisely what the judge chose to do.

With Davis planning to continue denying licenses to same-sex couples, her attorney Mathew Staver, of the Christian legal organization Liberty Counsel, said that Monday's ruling is effectively delayed until Davis's appeal is decided. The lawyer for two gay couples who were refused licenses by Davis, however, said that the county clerk must abide by Bunning's earlier order to grant the paperwork.

Related: Kentucky Clerk Has Until Monday to Justify Refusal Of Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

Davis and her supporters in Kentucky are sticking to their guns. The dispute in Rowan County followed the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling in June, after which Kentucky's Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear mandated that county clerks issue licenses to all couples. Davis attempted to use her Christian faith as justification for not doing so, but Bunning dismissed this argument.

The Rowan county clerk continued to deny licenses to same-sex couples, however, specifically denying service to two couples.

On August 12, Bunning gave Davis a five-day deadline to persuade him to hold off on his earlier order. In the ruling, Bunning noted that Davis's intransigence likely violated the Constitution by "openly adopting a policy that promotes her own religious convictions at the expenses of others."

"Davis remains free to practice her Apostolic Christian beliefs," Bunning wrote last week. "She may continue to attend church twice a week, participate in Bible Study and minister to female inmates at the Rowan County Jail. She is even free to believe that marriage is a union between one man and one woman, as many Americans do. However, her religious convictions cannot excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform as Rowan County Clerk."

Davis's son Nathan works with her at the Rowan County Clerk's office. He told the AP last week that Liberty Counsel had advised them to keep denying same-sex marriage while they pursue the appeal.

"Kim Davis is just an example of what's going to be happening not only to other clerks but to other people who are going to be confronted with this issue, and we think that this is a serious matter that needs to be decided by a higher court, even the Supreme Court," Staver remarked.

Related: Kentucky Governor to County Clerk: Start Issuing Marriage Licenses or Resign

Some 57 clerks have petitioned the governor's office to call a special session of the state legislature to address the matter of religious beliefs and same-sex marriage licenses. Beshear has said he has no intention of doing so, preferring that the issue be taken up when the legislature convenes as scheduled in January. Meanwhile, he insists that clerks follow the law.

While most officials around the country are administering wedding licenses to gay couples, regardless of their beliefs, Kentucky isn't the only state where officials have objected to issuing same-sex marriage licenses. In Alabama, couples were forced to search for judges in different parts of the state that were willing to provide wedding licenses after local probate judges stopped issuing them. Probate judges in two Alabama counties declared that they would stop issuing marriage licenses altogether after the Supreme Court ruling, again citing Christian beliefs.

Federal Judge Ginny Granade, who struck down Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage in January, affirmed that the law holds that probate judges who hand out marriage licenses in Alabama have to also issue them to same-sex couples.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.