Kim Davis is launching a new appeal. The Kentucky county clerk who was sent to jail on Thursday after repeatedly refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples has launched a new appeal to the order that placed her behind bars. “While most Americans are enjoying the extended holiday weekend with family and friends, Kim Davis sits in isolation for the fourth day in jail,” her attorney, Mat Staver, said in a statement Sunday, according to CNN. “We are working through the holiday to secure Kim’s freedom.”
Although the notice to appeal that was filed by her lawyers on Sunday (available here), doesn’t outline why her attorneys think she should be released “Davis’ legal team seemed to indicate they would argue the contempt of court ruling was a violation of due process,” points out NPR. “Mrs. Davis is entitled to proper notice and due process when she is threatened with the loss of her freedom. There was no indication that she would be incarcerated,” Staver noted in his statement. Another lawyer for Davis, Roger Gannam, told Reuters that “the contempt order itself was unlawful.”
Davis´ deputy clerks began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Friday, but her lawyers argue they are “not worth the paper they are written on” because Davis has refused to authorize them. Under Kentucy law, marriage licenses must be issued under the authority of the elected county clerk. Davis has vowed to stay in jail until the state legislature changes the law so licenses can be issued under someone else’s authority. Problem is the state legislature is not scheduled to meet until January, points out the Associated Press.
“She’s not going to resign, she’s not going to sacrifice her conscience, so she’s doing what Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about in his Letter from the Birmingham Jail, which is to pay the consequences for her decision,” Staver said.
Davis is getting support from Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who is scheduled to visit her in prison on Tuesday. In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, the former Arkansas governor said the county clerk is standing up against “judicial tyranny.”
