(RNN) – A federal appeals court ruled that a gay couples who were refused a marriage license by Rowan County KY clerk Kim Davis can sue her for damages.
The ruling by the three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit of Appeals overturned an earlier ruling by a lower court, The Lexington Herald Leader reported.
Last August, U.S. District Judge David Bunning dismissed three lawsuits filed against Davis by same-sex couples who applied to her for marriage licenses after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling legalizing gay marriage. Davis refused to grant the licenses based on her personal religious objection to gay marriage.
Bunning ruled that the cases were moot because a 2016 Kentucky law took clerks' names off the license allowing all couples, same-sex and opposite-sex to receive licenses.
The appeals court struck down the decision ruling saying a law that took effect in 2016 did not reverse damages suffered in 2015.
David Moore and David Ermold sued Davis personally in her capacity as a Rowan County official. The new ruling allows them to continue their case against her.
Davis became a symbol for conservatives who opposed gay marriage as the story broke internationally.
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