A federal judge found a Kentucky clerk at the center of the national debate over same-sex marriage in contempt of court after she defied the Supreme Court by refusing to issue marriage licenses in protest of such marriages. District Judge David L. Bunning ordered Kim Davis taken into custody by federal marshals "until she complies" with a court order.
Davis, the Rowan County clerk, has become the most prominent elected official to refuse to abide by a Supreme Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal across the United States.
The plaintiffs in the case had asked the judge to fine Davis until she complied, but Barton reports that "the judge said that he wasn't convinced fines would have compelled" Davis to issue licenses.