Clerk who fought gay marriage is out of jail

Grayson, Ky. • The Kentucky county clerk jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples was released Tuesday after five days behind bars, emerging to a tumultuous welcome from thousands of supporters waving white crosses.

"I just want to give God the glory. His people have rallied, and you are a strong people," Kim Davis told the crowd after stepping outside, her arms raised like a victorious boxer, to the blaring song "Eye of the Tiger."

"Kim cannot and will not violate her conscience," said Mat Staver, founder of the Liberty Counsel, a Christian law firm representing Davis. As for whether she will issue licenses, Staver said only, "You'll find out in the near future."

The Rowan County clerk whose defiance has made her a hero to the religious right walked free after the federal judge who ordered her locked up lifted the contempt ruling against her, saying he was satisfied that her deputies were fulfilling their obligation to grant licenses to same-sex couples in her absence.

But U.S. District Judge David Bunning also warned Davis not to interfere again or else she could wind up back in jail.

Davis, 49, has refused to resign her $80,000-a-year job. As an elected official, she can lose her post only if she is defeated for re-election or is impeached by the state General Assembly. The latter is unlikely, given the legislature's conservative slant.

As the surprise news of her impending release spread, a crowd of dozens of supporters who had gathered on the jailhouse lawn swelled to thousands. They broke into "Amazing Grace" and "God Bless America" and waved signs, flags and crosses.

Cries of thanks to Jesus echoed through the crowd as Davis emerged next to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and her husband, Joe, who wore overalls and a straw hat. Huckabee and fellow GOP White House candidate Sen. Ted Cruz visited her at the jail just after the decision came down.

"If somebody has to go to jail, I'm willing to go in her place," said Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor. "She has shown more courage than any politician I know."

Davis was locked up Thursday for the boldest act of resistance by a public official yet to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that effectively legalized same-sex marriage across the nation. Citing "God's authority" and her belief that gay marriage is a sin, Davis, an Apostolic Christian, stopped issuing all marriage licenses.

Two gay couples and two heterosexual ones sued her. Bunning ordered Davis to issue the licenses, and the Supreme Court backed him. But she still refused and was held in contempt of court and hauled off to jail in handcuffs, igniting protests from religious conservatives. They rallied for days at her office, at the jail and outside the judge's home.

The timing of her release after just five days came as something of a surprise. Last week, Bunning said that he might reconsider his decision to jail her in a week.

Five of Davis' six deputy clerks — all except her son, Nathan — agreed to issue licenses to gay couples with Davis behind bars. In lifting the contempt order, Bunning asked for updates on the clerks' compliance every two weeks.

On Tuesday, Staver, Davis' lawyer, maintained that the licenses issued by her deputies are invalid. But the Kentucky attorney general's office said it believes otherwise.

Davis' dispute has offered some of the GOP presidential candidates an opportunity to appeal to the party's evangelical Christian wing, which opposes gay marriage and has cast her jailing as an issue of religious freedom.

Casey County Clerk Casey Davis, who recently bicycled more than 400 miles across Kentucky in solidarity with Kim Davis, called her jailing a "total injustice." He is not related to her.

He said he is not issuing any marriage licenses, and suspects the conflict could come to his county next.

He said only one same-sex couple has inquired about a license in his county and was told there were no licenses being issued, and that's the last Davis heard from them. He said he, too, would be willing to go to jail.