Kentucky Clerk Appeals Gay Marriage Jail Term

Kim Davis is being held at Carter County Detention Center for refusing to issue marriage licences after the Supreme Court ruling.

Kim Davis is being held at Carter County Detention Center

By Sky News US Team

A Kentucky county clerk has appealed against a judge's decision to jail her for refusing to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.

Kim Davis was held in contempt of court for disobeying a ruling by US District Judge David Bunning on Thursday and told she would remain in jail until she complied with the order to issue licences.
Lawyers for Davis lodged the appeal on Sunday, but did not include arguments for why she should be released.
Davis objects to same-sex marriage for religious reasons and stopped issuing all marriage licences in June after the US Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage nationwide.

Protesters outside the court in Ashland, Kentucky, where Davis was jailed

Two gay couples and two straight couples then sued her, and Judge Bunning ordered her to issue the licences and the Supreme Court upheld his ruling.
But she still refused to do it and was then jailed, with Judge Bunning saying her "good-faith belief is simply not a viable defence".
Her deputy clerks have issued marriage licences to same-sex couples while she is behind bars.
Mat Staver, one of her lawyers, said the marriage licences issued while she was in jail are "not worth the paper they are written on".

Davis has refused to issue any licences following a Supreme Court ruling

He called the contempt hearing "a charade", and claimed Judge Bunning had made up his mind before the hearing began.
Kentucky law requires marriage licences to be issued under the authority of the elected county clerk.
Davis has said she will not issue any marriage licences until the state legislature changes the law so the licences can be issued under someone else's authority.
Governor Steve Beshear has refused to call a special session of the state legislature, which is not scheduled to meet again until January.
Davis has refused to resign her $80,000-a-year job. As an elected official, the only way she can lose the position is to lose an election or to be impeached by the state legislature.
Mr Staver added: "She's not going to resign, she's not going to sacrifice her conscience, so she's doing what Martin Luther King Jr wrote about in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, which is to pay the consequences for her decision."
On Saturday, around 300 people staged a rally in support of Davis at the Carter County Detention Center where she is being held.
Another rally has been scheduled for Tuesday with Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
Critics have accused Davis of selectively following the Bible after it emerged she has been married four times, twice to the same man.
The mother of four reportedly also had twins out of wedlock.