CINCINNATI, Ohio – On Monday, Liberty Counsel filed a reply brief to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Kim Davis, the county clerk who was jailed for following her conscience. The brief asks the court to reverse the contempt order that sent Davis to jail.

“More than six months after filing this lawsuit, Plaintiffs still fail to provide constitutional grounds for the district court’s newfound fundamental right to have a marriage license personally signed, authorized, approved, and issued by a particular person in a particular county, irrespective of the burdens placed upon that individual’s freedoms and undisputed, sincerely held religious beliefs about marriage,” Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, told the Court.

“Our Founding Fathers believed in the right to follow one’s conscience so much that they protected religious liberty in the First Amendment. The first Americans traveled to this faraway land for the right to exercise their religion according to their own hearts, not government mandate,” Staver said. “From the Mayflower Compact to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell, no court precedent or legislative mandate says that same-sex marriage must be held at every wedding venue, photographed by a specific photographer, celebrated by all bakers, or, in this case, licensed by a particular clerk. Then and still today, Americans enjoy the free exercise of religion and the freedom to follow Biblical principles in their personal and professional lives.”

“Liberty Counsel will continue to fight to protect the free exercise of religion. We will never give up,” Staver concluded.

On September 3, 2015, Davis was jailed by U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She was released five days later.

On December 22, Matt Bevin, Kentucky’s new governor, removed the names of counties and county clerks from state marriage license forms, a move which has been criticized by some as an overstep of his authority.

It isn’t known when the Sixth Circuit Court will render its decision.

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