Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis tells media on Sept. 14 that her office will issue marriage licenses under order of a federal judge, but they will not have her name or office listed.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis interfered with her deputy clerks by altering marriage licenses after she was released from jail for contempt of court, according to a court filing Monday by four Kentucky couples represented by the ACLU.



"Davis immediately began interfering with the Deputy Clerk’s issuance of marriage licenses upon returning to her office on September 14," the lawyers wrote in the filing.

The couples are asking U.S. District Court Judge David L. Bunning to order Davis to begin issuing marriage licenses without recent changes — she had modified the forms to say they were issued by a "notary public" and "pursuant to a federal court order." Those alterations raise questions about the licenses' validity and stigmatize same-sex couples, the plaintiffs argue.

Davis has protested her office issuing marriage licenses due to her religious objections to same-sex couples marrying, a position that led her to be jailed after being held in contempt for failing to follow Bunning's initial order that she end her "no marriage licenses" policy.



If Davis were to disobey the further order requested by the plaintiffs on Monday, their lawyers argue that Bunning should fine Davis and temporarily reassign marriage license duties to another entity in a receivership. The couples do not request that Davis be sent to jail.



“The marriage licenses currently issued by the Rowan County Clerk’s Office are so materially altered that they create a two-tier system of marriage licenses throughout state,” says the motion filed in a U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. “The adulterated marriage licenses received by Rowan County couples will effectively feature a stamp of animus against the LGBT community, signaling that, in Rowan County, the government’s position is that LGBT couples are second-class citizens unworthy of official recognition and authorization of their marriage licenses but for this Court’s intervention and Order."

Mat Staver, a lawyer for Davis, countered in a statement Monday evening, "Kim Davis has made a good faith effort to comply with the court's order and has not prevented the issuance of marriage licenses by Deputy Clerks."

Davis plans to respond to the allegations, the statement said.