"Kim will be on trial because of what happened in June 2015 when the Supreme Court issued this activist opinion, 5 to 4, regarding marriage and said that there was a constitutional right to same-sex marriage," says Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the law firm representing Davis.
Davis made national news at the time because she was an elected official in Rowan County, Kentucky, where she requested a religious accommodation from signing her name to marriage licenses.
Staver, who describes the case as a "sham setup" by the ACLU, says left-wing groups and homosexual activists targeted her at the time. The federal trial this week, he tells AFN, is a continuation of that intimidation.
"The ACLU is still targeting her,” the attorney says. “And the reason for this trial is to assess damages against her as an individual, not against the state, but against Kim. They want to punish her for her religious convictions.”
The verdicts have been handed down in both cases. One jury awarded zero damages while the second found for the plaintiffs and $100,000 in damages.
"This case now will set this case up to go all the way back to the U.S. Supreme Court where Kim Davis, who already obtained religious freedom for all Kentucky clerks, will now extend those efforts to fight for freedom for everyone in the United States," he explains. "In addition, we will argue that the 2015 Obergefell decision at the Supreme Court should be overturned."
That's the decision, considered to be erroneous by some legal experts, that legalized homosexual "marriage" in all 50 states.
The jury selection and trial is before U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning in the Eastern District of Kentucky.
9/14/2023 - More comments from Staver added.
