Kim Davis is altering marriage licenses, ACLU says

(Copyright by WSLS - All rights reserved)

NBC News – Kim Davis went back to work as a Kentucky county clerk last week after a stint in jail and a pledge that she wouldn't interfere with deputies who were issuing wedding licenses to same-sex couples.

But in a court motion filed Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union said that she was doing just that.

Recommended Videos



After returning to her job on Sept. 14 as the Rowan County clerk, the filing said, Davis "immediately" began meddling with licenses that the office's deputy clerk, Brian Mason, was issuing.

She "confiscated all the original forms, and provided a changed form" that didn't mention Rowan County, the filing said. Nor did the new form mention her name or references to a "deputy clerk."

Where Mason's signature would appear, the filing said, there were initials.

The ACLU, which is representing several couples who are suing Rowan County, called this "significant" interference that has "violated" a federal court order and "resulted in material alterations to those licenses that render their validity questionable at best."

The group is requesting that an older, unmodified version of the county's marriage license be used.

In a statement, Davis' lawyer, Mat Staver, said that she "has made a good faith effort to comply with the court's order and has not prevented the issuance of marriage licenses by Deputy Clerks. While these licenses do not have her name on them, the Governor said last Monday they were valid."

David Bunning, the judge who ordered Davis to jail earlier this month, also said licenses issued while "she was in jail without her name were valid," said Staver the founder of Liberty Counsel, a group that promotes "natural marriage."

The filing, Staver added, reveals that the ACLU's interest is not in marriage licenses, but in hanging Davis' "scalp" on "the wall as a trophy."