Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who has been in jail for the last five days for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, has been released. The judge who found her in contempt reasoned that since her deputies in the office are giving marriage licenses to gays, there is no need to hold her. But the question of whether her signature will still have to appear on the licenses–the sticking point for her–does not seem to have been resolved, so this case may not be over.
From Kim Davis Freed From Jail in Kentucky Gay Marriage Dispute – The New York Times:
After five nights in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Kim Davis, a Kentucky county clerk, walked free Tuesday to a roar of cheers from thousands of supporters, but she and her lawyer would not say whether she would continue to defy court orders and try to block the licenses.
Outside the jail here, a planned demonstration by people who, like Ms. Davis, say that gay marriage violates their religious beliefs turned buoyant when she was released, the sense of triumph mixed with a dose of presidential politics.
She walked onstage to thunderous applause, the song “Eye of the Tiger” playing on loudspeakers, her hands held aloft by one of her lawyers, Mathew D. Staver, and Mike Huckabee, a Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor. Another Republican presidential contender, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, was also in attendance but largely overshadowed. . . .
But her release came with a stern warning from Judge David L. Bunning of Federal District Court, who last Thursday sent her to jail and directed five of her deputies to issue licenses without her approval. In a two-page order on Tuesday, he wrote that he was setting her free because her office was “fulfilling its obligation to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples,” but would respond to any further defiance.
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