Kentucky — (NBC News) A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a Kentucky clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples may leave jail, but her lawyer says she’ll continue blocking licenses when she returns to work.
That sets up another legal confrontation on a case that is becoming a case study on the continued resistance to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis released with the caveat that if she interfered with the deputies who have been issuing the licenses to same-sex couples, “appropriate sanctions will be considered.”
That seems likely, since Davis told Bunning on Thursday, just before he had her jailed, that she would not allow any same sex marriage licenses to be issued from her office, even if she wasn’t the one signing them. That’s because all licenses issued by her office are, legally, authorized by her.
Davis said she could not abide that.
“Nothing has been resolved,” Davis’ lawyer, Mat Staver, told NBC News soon after Bunning ordered her released.
“She told the court Thursday that she can’t allow licenses to go out under her name and her authority that authorize a marriage that collides with her conscience and religious conviction, and Kim is not changed on that position,” Staver said
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