LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kim Davis, the former Rowan County clerk who was sued for denying marriage licenses to gay couples a decade ago, has lost yet another appeal.

In a Monday decision, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Davis’ motion to have her case re-heard en banc, or by the entire court.

In March, a three-judge panel on the appellate court denied her request overturn a previous ruling that requires her to pay more than $360,000 in damages to one of the couples she denied a marriage license to in 2015. Davis and her attorneys at Liberty Counsel then asked for the entire slate of judges on the Sixth Circuit court to review her case.

That request for an en banc hearing was denied Monday, further narrowing her avenues for potential appeals.

“The original panel has reviewed the petition for re-hearing and concludes that the issues raised in the petition were fully considered upon the original submission and decision of the case,” Clerk Kelly Stephens wrote in the April 28 ruling. “The petition then was circulated to the full court. No judge has requested a vote on the suggestion for rehearing en banc. Therefore, the petition is denied.”

Davis and her attorneys have repeatedly said their hope is to take her case to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage.

The Supreme Court already rejected an appeal from Davis in 2020, and legal experts have told the Herald-Leader this isn’t the likely case to move the needle on gay marriage, in part because the case is almost a decade old, and Davis’ actions as a public employee were clearly unconstitutional.

But that hasn’t stopped Davis and her attorneys from trying.

Still, Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel said in a January news release that Obergefell should be overturned in its entirety “because that decision threatens the religious liberty of many Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman.”

A Liberty Counsel spokesperson did not immediately return an emailed request for comment Monday morning.

After Monday’s decision, appealing to the Supreme Court again is the only action that remains for Davis’ case, which has been ping-ponging in the judicial system for the better part of a decade.

‘Zero surprise’ Davis’ appeal was rejected

After the landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2015, Davis became a national champion for the conservative Christian right when, in her capacity as Rowan County clerk, she refused to sign her name to marriage licenses issued to gay couples. Davis argued that issuing licenses were counter to her beliefs as an evangelical Christian.

David Ermold and David Moore, one of the couples to whom Davis refused to grant a license, later sued the former clerk, arguing that her refusal violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights by denying their fundamental right to marry under the court ruling.

Ermold and Moore tried to get a marriage license and were rejected three times. They eventually obtained a marriage license signed by a deputy clerk while Davis was temporarily jailed for violating a court’s orders.

Davis’ lawyers with Liberty Counsel have said she did not violate the law, nor is she is not liable to pay more than $360,000 in damages for the legal fees and emotional distress she caused a gay couple by denying them a marriage license in 2015 because, acting in her role as a government employee, she had sovereign and qualified immunity.

Davis “was entitled to a reasonable accommodation for her sincere religious convictions under the First Amendment and Kentucky’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” her attorneys with Liberty Counsel wrote in a July 2024 court filing.

Liberty Counsel, an Orlando-based “litigation, education and public policy ministry,” embraces a “worldview that his historically Christian and biblical.”

Over the last near-decade, Davis’ lawyers have argued that Davis was entitled to immunity as a public official; that her right to religious freedom under the First Amendment shielded her from liability; and that Ermold and Moore did not provide sufficient evidence of emotional distress caused by Davis to justify the decision in their favor. They’ve also appealed court rulings requiring Davis to pay more than $360,000 in damages for the legal fees and emotional distress she caused the gay couple by denying their marriage license.

But courts, including a jury of her peers, have disagreed with that argument multiple times.

In 2022, a federal judge found that Davis did, indeed, violate the couple’s right to marry.

Michael Gartland, a lawyer for Ermhold and Moore, said Monday the ruling “comes as zero surprise.”

“Kim Davis hasn’t had a chance since this thing started in 2015. She’s lost everything along the way and she’s got one bullet left in her gun — to go to the Supreme Court. And we fully expect them to say, ‘no, thank you.’

“It will finally be all over when the Supreme Court says get out of here,” Gartland added.

Davis has 90 days to appeal to the high court.

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