Kim Davis takes her freedom fight to Sixth Circuit
ROWAN COUNTY,
Kentucky, November 3, 2015 -- Kentucky clerk Kim Davis is
taking her fight to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In a 126-page
appeal, Davis and her attorneys with Liberty Counsel asked the Circuit Court to
overturn four lower-court decisions. Specifically, they are asking the Court to
reverse two injunctions against Davis, as well as grant her an injunction from
having to follow the Supreme Court's marriage ruling, and overturn the contempt
of court decision that
placed her in jail.
Davis became
a national figure for religious liberty after refusing to sign same-sex
"marriage" certificates. One of her attorneys told
LifeSiteNews that they effectively won the legal fight, but that the fight
continues because
LGBT activists won't stop pressing Davis to put her name on
"marriage" certificates for same-sex couples.
Davis'
arguments have relied heavily on the U.S. Constitution, the Kentucky
Constitution, and the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act. These
documents were heavily cited in the appeal.
"Plaintiffs
suffered no direct and substantial burden on their right to marry under the
Fourteenth Amendment," says the appeal, "since they are physically
and financially able to obtain Kentucky marriage licenses from more than 130
locations throughout the state, and Davis’ religious freedom is substantially
burdened and irreparably harmed by the forced authorization and approval of SSM
licenses in derogation of her undisputed sincerely-held religious beliefs
protected by the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the United
States and Kentucky Constitutions, while many less restrictive alternatives to
the SSM Mandate are available."
The appeal
asks the Court to consider "whether the district court erred in
practically denying Davis’ request for injunctive relief...in which she sought
a reasonable religious accommodation from the SSM Mandate." It also akss
"whether the district court erred in expanding the Injunction while it was
on appeal to this Court," along with several other components of the
injunction's expansion.
Perhaps most
importantly, the Circuit Court is asked to consider if "the district court
erred in finding Davis in contempt and ordering her to be incarcerated without
affording her appropriate due process, violating her rights under the Federal
Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and discarding fundamental principles
of federalism and comity by commandeering a state office run by a publicly
elected official."
