The 3 - January 14, 2024

This week's edition of The 3, which features three stories of relevance to the Christian community, features news Kentucky where are former county clerk is still fighting legal action against her for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses.  Also, the U.S. Supreme Court will be weighing in on whether or not ER doctors can be forced to provide abortions, staying a lower court ruling and protecting doctors, for now.  Plus, in Ohio, the legislature is on its way to overriding the governor's veto of a bill that would protect children from harmful "gender-change" procedures and prevent boys from competing in female sports. 

Former KY clerk hit will large legal bill for standing against same-sex marriage

The Obergefell decision from the U.S. Supreme Court was handed down in 2015.  Now, in 2024, a former clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky, is still involved in litigation against her.  In fact, at this moment, a court has ruled that she owes some $350,000 in legal fees.

Liberty Counsel has been representing the clerk, Kim Davis, since that initial action.  On its website, the Christian legal organization states:

Liberty Counsel will file a motion this month in Ermold v. Davis to ask the U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky to reverse the jury verdict against former Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis who was sued by two same-sex couples for not issuing them marriage licenses. In September 2023, the Ermold plaintiffs asked for $50,000 each in damages and a jury awarded them a total of $100,000. Judge David Bunning has now awarded the plaintiffs an additional $246,000 in attorney’s fees and $14,000 in expenses.

What is worth considering is that in the other case, Yates v. Davis, the jury did not award the plaintiffs.  The Liberty Counsel website says: 

During the trial, two juries heard the same evidence and the same arguments in both cases. The jury in the Yates case awarded zero damages because that is what the evidence required. The plaintiffs in that case originally asked for $300,000 in damages.

However, without any evidentiary support, the Ermold jury reached a verdict of $50,000 for each plaintiff. The evidence presented at trial simply does not support that verdict because there were no lost wages and they presented no supporting testimony regarding emotional injury. The Ermold jury verdict is unsound and easily sets this case up for an eventual route to the U.S. Supreme Court where religious freedom will be central to the argument along with the issue that the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges was wrongly decided and should be overturned.

The website article also notes, "This latest judgment now allows Liberty Counsel to ask the Court to reverse the jury’s verdict against Davis because there was insufficient evidence to award the plaintiffs monetary damages. If the motion is denied, Liberty Counsel will then appeal the case to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals."

Supreme Court allows Idaho to prevent ER doctors from performing abortions

Just days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit prevented the federal government from requiring emergency room physicians from having to perform abortions, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it had placed a ruling against the state of Idaho on hold pending its review of the case.  Alliance Defending Freedom, on its website, stated on Tuesday, January 9:

The U.S. Supreme Court Friday halted a lower court ruling that allowed the Biden administration to misuse the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to force emergency room doctors to perform abortions in violation of Idaho’s Defense of Life Act. Idaho’s law puts the lives of women and their unborn children first, preventing physicians from ending an unborn child’s life unless doing so is necessary to save the life of the mother. The stay issued in State of Idaho v. United States of America will remain in effect until the high court decides the case later this year, allowing Idaho to continue to protect the lives of women and their children as the litigation continues.

The website quotes from ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley, who serves as Vice President of the ADF Center for Life and Regulatory Practice, who said: “The government has no business forcing emergency room physicians to violate their duty to provide life-saving care to all, including unborn children. We are proud to serve alongside the state of Idaho to ensure doctors can freely and safely serve women and their families.”

Ohio House overrides governor's veto of SAFE Act

It's called the SAFE Act, standing for Save Adolescents from Experimentation.  The Ohio legislature had passed the legislation recently, only to have it vetoed by the governor, who issued executive action addressing but a part of the comprehensive action provided for in the bill.

Now, the bill is on its way to a veto override, and the House of Representatives took the first step last week.  The Washington Stand reported that the House "...voted 65-27 to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of Substitute H.B. 68, more than the 60 votes required."  The article goes on to say:

The measure combines the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act — which shields children from transgender puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone injections, and surgeries — with the Save Women’s Sports Act, which prohibits men from competing in girls’ sports or sharing their locker rooms. It also prevents courts from denying or limiting custody to a parent who refuses to “affirm” their child’s transgender identity and safeguards state taxpayers from funding minors’ transgender procedures through Medicaid.

The vote to override actually received four more votes than the original passage last month, according to the article. The article quotes from David Mahan, who is the policy director at the Center for Christian Virtue n Ohio, who said, “Ohio and the entire nation have spoken. It’s not okay to chemically sterilize and mutilate children, and no clinic can transform little girls into little boys with pills and scalpels..."

The Washington Stand pointed out:

Leaders in the state’s right-to-life movement supported the bill, which would reduce the abortion industry’s profits. “From our earliest days, Cincinnati Right to Life has stood against Planned Parenthood’s pro-abortion, anti-person agenda which tragically now includes being a top advocat[e] and provider of gender-altering harm to minors and adults. Planned Parenthood believes abortion and gender mutilation ‘go hand in hand’ while also believing a child as young as two can be questioning their gender.” Right to Life of Northeast Ohio also posted several supportive messages.

And, that's important, considering the allegations that Planned Parenthood spent and misrepresented its way to the passage of a constitutional amendment in the state in November that would essentially legalize abortions in the state.  And, there have been reports of legislative action to alter the effect of that amendment, which did not go through the Ohio legislature.