Supporters of Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licences to gay couples due to her religious beliefs, say that any of her deputies who provide gay marriage licences without her permission should be fired.

Key points: Supporters of Davis want deputies who defy her orders fired

Supporters of Davis want deputies who defy her orders fired Davis says her position has not changed

Davis says her position has not changed Gay couples return to clerk's office to have documents filed

US district judge David Bunning ordered Ms Davis be released on Tuesday after six days in jail, warning her not to interfere with her deputy clerks who are issuing the licences, or face further sanctions.

Mr Bunning had found Ms Davis, clerk for Rowan County in eastern Kentucky, in contempt after she stopped issuing licences to any couples, citing her belief as an Apostolic Christian that a marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

Supporters of clerk Kim Davis rally outside the detention centre. ( Reuters: Chris Tilley )

Ms Davis will return to her US$80,000-a-year job ($114,000) on Friday or Monday after spending time with family.

However, her lawyer, Mat Staver, founder of Christian religious advocacy group Liberty Counsel, said on Tuesday her position had not changed, raising the possibility she could return to jail if she moves to block the issuance of licences.

Raising the stakes further, deputy clerk Brian Mason said on Wednesday he would continue issuing marriage licences after Ms Davis returns, even if she tells him not to.

"I'm still going to issue licences," he said.

Ante Pavkovic, one of the people who helped organise pro-Davis rallies outside the Grayson, Kentucky, detention centre where Ms Davis was jailed, lectured the deputy clerks not to violate their oaths of office, like Mr Bunning and the US Supreme Court justices who backed gay marriage did.

"Do not join them in this any further, and if you can't do that, then you should just quit," Mr Pavkovic, 49, of North Carolina, said, standing in the clerk's office in Morehead, Kentucky.

He waved a sign in the faces of the deputy clerks that read, "Fire the cowardly clerks that are lawbreakers".

He was asked to leave by a deputy sheriff.

Defying the US Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court issued a ruling in late June legalising gay marriage in all 50 states, but a small number of elected clerks and lower-level judges have voiced opposition on religious grounds.

Some in Texas, Alabama and elsewhere have refused to issue licences to anyone, gay or straight.

At the Rowan County clerk's office on Wednesday, the first of seven gay couples to obtain marriage licences last week returned to have the documents legally filed.

Ten licenses in all have been issued.

Nashia Fife, secretary-elect of the Rowan County Rights Coalition, which supports the rights of gay couples to get marriage licences, said the struggle over the issue has exposed divisions that were not visible before.

"The ante has been upped at this point," she said of Mr Bunning's warning to Ms Davis not to interfere.

Another of the gay couples who got a marriage licence last week remained wary about what they would face when they return to have the document filed by the clerk's office.

"I guess I'm pessimistic, but I'm hopeful," David Moore said on Tuesday evening, confirming he had not yet married partner David Ermold.

Mr Staver, Davis's lawyer, said his client still wants an accommodation to remove her name and her authority from the marriage certificates.

Mr Bunning secured assurances from the five of six deputy clerks that they would comply with the court order and issue licences to all legally eligible couples.

Only Ms Davis's son Nathan refused, but he was not jailed.

Reuters