Kim Davis cannot use her right to religious freedom to "violate the constitutional rights of others," ruled U.S. District Judge David Bunning.
Mary Papenfuss at HuffPost:
A federal judge has ruled that Kim Davis, who was a county clerk in Kentucky, violated the constitutional rights of same-sex couples to whom she repeatedly denied marriage licenses.
Davis, who made headlines and became a hero to many conservatives in 2015, claimed her right to religious beliefs allowed her to deny the licenses even though the Supreme Court had legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning in Ashland said in his ruling Friday that Davis “cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while performing her duties as an elected official.”
It’s “apparent” the plaintiffs have a 14th Amendment “right to marry,” the judge wrote. “It is also readily apparent that Davis made a conscious decision to violate Plaintiffs’ right,” he added.
Over 6 and half years after former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis announced her denial of granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Obergefell SCOTUS ruling, she finally got told off by Judge David Bunning for using "religious freedom" as a shield to circumvent rules while performing her duties as a clerk.
