Life & Society

Kentucky Woman Sues Kim Davis for Denying License to ‘Marry’ Animal

Davis-compressedFRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky woman has filed a lawsuit against county clerk Kim Davis after she was denied a license to “marry” an animal.

According to local television station WDRB-TV, Elizabeth Ording, 27, is additionally suing Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear over the matter.

She asserted that a “marriage to an animal wouldn’t be that different than same-sex marriage,” the outlet writes. “Ording says the county attorney told her she could have a wedding, but the state wouldn’t recognize the marriage.”

The case, Ording v. Davis, et al, is docketed online and has been assigned to Judge Henry Wilhoit in the Eastern District Court of Kentucky.

Earlier this month, Mark “Chris” Sevier of Vanderbilt Law School filed a suit against Davis for being denied a license to “marry” his laptop computer. He has filed similar suits in Texas and Florida in an effort to show that same-sex nuptials is just as legitimate as tying the knot with an object.

“This lawsuit is frivolous,” Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement. “There is obviously no right for a man to marry a machine. When you make gender irrelevant to a gender-based relationship you open Pandora’s box and make a mockery out of marriage.”

As previously reported, Davis had been in national headlines last year after she declined to issue same-sex “marriage” licenses as long as her name was on the documents. Davis, who attends a Oneness Apostolic Pentecostal assembly, said that she would do so if her name was removed from the licenses.

Her refusal soon went to court via a lawsuit led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and in September, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered that Davis issue the licenses despite her religious identity. As she continued to refuse to issue the licenses without the accommodation, Bunning ordered that Davis be placed behind bars until she was willing to comply. In the meantime, the judge arranged for a deputy clerk to sign the licenses in her absence.

Davis was released from the Carter County Jail five days later after her attorneys filed an appeal of the contempt order, and also because Bunning was satisfied that her deputy clerks were providing the licenses instead. He stipulated her release on the condition that she not interfere with her deputies.

By the end of the year, new Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin issued an executive order for the Department for Libraries and Archives to release new licenses that do not cite the county or the name of the county clerk. Months later, the state legislature passed a law altering the licenses similar to Bevin’s order.

Davis consequently discontinued her legal proceedings as her request for accommodation was considered to be accomplished.

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