#david ermold

Daniel Villarreal at LGBTQ Nation:

A new lawsuit filed this month accuses former county clerk Kim Davis of deliberately transferring over $400,000 of land to family members to avoid paying over $565,000 awarded to a same-sex couple, David Ermold and David Moore, for illegally denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The couple sued Davis and won their federal civil rights lawsuit in 2023. Then, in January 2024, a judge ruled that she must also pay $260,000 in legal fees to a couple she denied a license to. Ermold and Moore’s attorneys said that after her mother died in 2025, she inherited three parcels of land worth more than $400,000 and then transferred the property’s deeds to other family members in order to conceal her assets and avoid having to liquidate them to pay the same-sex couple. Attorney Michael J. Gartland said a fraudulent conveyance statute prohibits defendants from transferring property to avoid paying existing claims, WKYT reported. As such, the plaintiffs’ lawsuit has asked a judge to void the property transfers, block further movement of assets, and have estate funds calculated as part of the payment she owes to the couple. Davis, a conservative Christian who has been married four times, initially told the couple that she was acting “under God’s authority” when she refused to issue the license because she believes marriage is only between a man and a woman.

"I am honored to announce my candidacy for Rowan County Clerk," [David] Ermold said in a press release. "I am running to restore the confidence of the people in our clerk's office and because I believe that the leaders of our community should act with integrity and fairness, and they should put the needs of their constituents first."

The election is on May 22, 2018.

His goal is to bring back representation of people in public office, not to further a political agenda. Among his many responsibilities as clerk will be issuing marriage licenses--a responsibility he is quite familiar with, as he had to fight to have his own marriage license issued in the past. Few people will be as familiar with the legal process as him, so I think he’s a solid choice. 

Devin Dwyer at ABC News:

Ten years after the Supreme Court extended marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide, the justices this fall will consider for the first time whether to take up a case that explicitly asks them to overturn that decision. Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for six days in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple on religious grounds, is appealing a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages plus $260,000 for attorneys fees. In a petition for writ of certiorari filed last month, Davis argues First Amendment protection for free exercise of religion immunizes her from personal liability for the denial of marriage licenses. More fundamentally, she claims the high court's decision in Obergefell v Hodges -- extending marriage rights for same-sex couples under the 14th Amendment's due process protections -- was "egregiously wrong." "The mistake must be corrected," wrote Davis' attorney Mathew Staver in the petition. He calls Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion in Obergefell "legal fiction." The petition appears to mark the first time since 2015 that the court has been formally asked to overturn the landmark marriage decision. Davis is seen as one of the only Americans currently with legal standing to bring a challenge to the precedent.

"If there ever was a case of exceptional importance," Staver wrote, "the first individual in the Republic's history who was jailed for following her religious convictions regarding the historic definition of marriage, this should be it." Lower courts have dismissed Davis' claims and most legal experts consider her bid a long shot. A federal appeals court panel concluded earlier this year that the former clerk "cannot raise the First Amendment as a defense because she is being held liable for state action, which the First Amendment does not protect."

[...]

A renewed campaign to reverse legal precedent

Davis' appeal to the Supreme Court comes as conservative opponents of marriage rights for same-sex couples pursue a renewed campaign to reverse legal precedent and allow each state to set its own policy. At the time Obergefell was decided in 2015, 35 states had statutory or constitutional bans on same-sex marriages, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Only eight states had enacted laws explicitly allowing the unions. So far in 2025, at least nine states have either introduced legislation aimed at blocking new marriage licenses for LGBTQ people or passed resolutions urging the Supreme Court to reverse Obergefell at the earliest opportunity, according to the advocacy group Lambda Legal. In June, the Southern Baptist Convention -- the nation's largest Protestant Christian denomination -- overwhelmingly voted to make "overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy God's design for marriage and family" a top priority.

[...]

Ruling wouldn't invalidate existing marriages

If the ruling were to be overturned at some point in the future, it would not invalidate marriages already performed, legal experts have pointed out. The 2022 Respect for Marriage Act requires the federal government and all states to recognize legal marriages of same-sex and interracial couples performed in any state -- even if there is a future change in the law. Davis first appealed the Supreme Court in 2019 seeking to have the damages suit against her tossed out, but her petition was rejected. Conservative Justices Thomas and Samuel Alito concurred with the decision at the time.

Just over 10 years after SCOTUS ruled in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, the high court has been asked to overturn the case in Davis v. Ermold. It takes 4 SCOTUS justices to grant cert.

Ryan Adamczeski at The Advocate:

The former Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples almost a decade ago is still appealing her case — this time to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kim Davis was serving as the elected clerk of Rowan County in 2015 when the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling Obergefell v. Hodges federally solidifying marriage equality. Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying it would violate her protected religious beliefs, and shut down all marriage license operations in her office to avoid serving them. David Ermold and David Moore were denied a license three times by Davis. A second couple, James Yates and Will Smith were denied five times. A deputy clerk finally issued their licenses after Davis spent five days in jail for her actions. Both couples sued afterwards, but only Ermold and Moore were awarded damages, each being allotted $50,000 by a federal jury in 2023. Davis appealed her case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, which ruled unanimously against her in February. Now that the appeals court has refused to re-hear her case, her lawyer — from the Liberty Counsel, a far-right Christian legal organization — has announced that they intend to appeal to the Supreme Court.