Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis is ordered to pay same-sex couple $100,000 eight years after she was jailed for refusing to grant them a marriage license

A US federal jury has awarded $100,000 in damages to one of the gay couples who sued a former Kentucky clerk for refusing to grant them a marriage license.

Kim Davis ultimately spent five days in jail for denying the couples’ request in 2015.

District Judge David Bunning on September 13 awarded David Ermold and David Moore $50,000 each in damages. The second couple, James Yates and Will Smith, received no compensation.

Davis, a former Rowan County clerk, believed that marriage should only take place between a man and a woman.

Bunning found her guilty last year of violating the couples’ constitutional rights.

Davis (left) was successfully sued by David Ermold (right) and his partner David Moore, who were each awarded $50,000 in damages on September 13

David Ermold (right) and David Moore (left) have been awarded $100,000 in damages after Davis refused to give them a marriage license

Bunning said at the time of his ruling 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.”

Michael Gartland of Del Cotto Law Group, who represented Ermold and Moore, said USA TODAY: ‘My customers couldn’t be happier.’

Davis’ lawyers, Liberty Counsel, said she planned to appeal the verdict.

“We look forward to appealing this decision and taking this case to the U.S. Supreme Court,” they said in a statement.

“Kim Davis paved the way in Kentucky, winning religious freedom for all law clerks. Now is the time to extend that freedom to everyone.”

Associated press reported that the U.S. Supreme Court had already declined in 2020 to hear an appeal from Davis’ lawyers in the case.

The case first attracted national media attention after Ermold and Moore showed up at Davis’ office to apply for a marriage license with news cameras in tow.

When she refused, Moore questioned what authority Davis had to deny them the right to marry.

“Under God’s authority,” she replied.

Davis was released in 2015 after her staff issued marriage certificates without her name on them.

She has been married four times before and has had twins out of wedlock.

Davis began identifying herself as a devout Christian after her fourth marriage failed.

The case first attracted national media attention after Ermold and Moore showed up at Davis’ office asking for a marriage license, with news cameras in tow.

Davis has been married four times before and has had twins out of wedlock. She began identifying herself as a devout Christian after her fourth marriage failed

Davis has been married four times before and has had twins out of wedlock. She began identifying herself as a devout Christian after her fourth marriage failed

She stopped issuing all marriage licenses a day after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 under Obergefell v. Hodges.

The deeply religious Christian also shed some light on her religious beliefs, saying she owes her life to Jesus Christ.

“After the death of my godly mother-in-law over four years ago, I went to church to fulfill her dying wish,” she said in a statement in 2015.

“There I heard a message of grace and forgiveness and I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ.”

Davis has been parodied in an episode of “Saturday Night Live,” but has been championed by conservatives in Kentucky to support her.

She lost her bid for re-election as county clerk in 2018. Ermold also ran unsuccessfully for her seat. The seat was ultimately won by Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr.