Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed last week after she refused to follow court orders to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, can be released, the judge in the case announced Tuesday.
District Court Judge David L. Bunning ruled that Davis, who was jailed on Thursday for contempt, cannot interfere in any way with the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Deputies in her office issued three licenses to gay couples last week.
Bunning said the licenses satisfied his order to issue documents, thus clearing the way to drop the contempt ruling.
The judge also noted that the licenses had been altered so that Rowan County, rather than the name Kim Davis, appeared on the document. Bunning said the changes "do not impact the court's finding that the deputy clerks have complied with the court's order."
The decision to release Davis comes as two Republican presidential hopefuls traveled to Kentucky on Tuesday to show their support for the clerk, who had begun her sixth day in jail for refusing a judge’s order, citing her religious opposition to gay marriage.
Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were heading to the Carter County Detention Center, where Davis has been held in federal custody. Huckabee was scheduled to meet with Davis and hold a rally of support, according to Davis’ lawyers.
Davis, who follows a fundamentalist religious practice, has become a symbol for conservative Christians who oppose same-sex marriage. Those Christians are also a key voting bloc for the GOP presidential nomination, especially in the early voting states, including the Iowa caucuses and the Southern primaries.
Huckabee, a former Baptist minister who often reaches out to religious conservatives, says Davis exercised her religious freedom by denying the marriage licenses. Cruz also issued strong statements supporting Davis, saying her 1st Amendment rights were violated.
Over the Labor Day weekend, attorneys representing Davis asked the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to free her and force the governor of Kentucky to make accommodations for her Christian beliefs.
They have also asked the court to overturn the contempt ruling. On Tuesday, lawyers for Davis filed an expanded memo with the appeals court seeking to have Davis freed on a variety of grounds, including lack of due process by Judge Bunning.
"Our immediate goal is to free Kim Davis," Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, which represents Davis, said in a statement Tuesday. "She does not belong in jail. We are requesting the appellate court to act quickly because an innocent person has lost her freedom without receiving the proper due process of law.”
Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses the day after the U.S. Supreme Court in June held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Two gay and two straight couples sued Davis, and Bunning ordered her to issue the licenses. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld his ruling last week.
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