Kim Davis Is Out of Jail — Now What?

The same Kentucky federal judge who sent Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to jail last week because of her refusal to let her office issue same-sex marriage licenses ordered her release Tuesday.

The impetus behind Judge David L. Bunning’s decision to grant Davis her freedom had less to do with her personal protest against gay marriage than it had to do with the rest of her office complying with the dictates of the law, as The New York Times reported:

In a two-page order issued Tuesday, the judge who sent her to jail, David L. Bunning of Federal District Court, said he would release Ms. Davis because he was satisfied that her office was “fulfilling its obligation to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples.”

Ms. Davis appeared about 2:30 with her lawyer, Mathew D. Staver, and Mike Huckabee, the Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas. Asked if Ms. Davis would issue licenses to same-sex couples, Mr. Staver said she would not violate her conscience.

In releasing Ms. Davis, Judge Bunning directed that she not “interfere in any way, directly or indirectly, with the efforts of her deputy clerks to issue marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples.” He said any such action would be regarded as “a violation” of his release order.

In store for Davis on Tuesday were visits from Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz, who had spoken in support of the county clerk’s cause. On Tuesday, Cruz posted a message on his Facebook page that read: “Praise God that Kim Davis is being released. It was an outrage that she was imprisoned for six days for living according to her Christian faith.”

–Posted by Kasia Anderson