Attorneys for the couple denied a marriage license by former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis more than a decade ago now allege she lied about her assets to avoid dishing out the roughly $570,000 she owes to them and to their attorneys. 

According to July court documents, filed in the U.S. District Court, Davis said in late 2025 she had no property or claim to any trust. Earlier that year, the lawyers say, she inherited half of her late mother’s  $735,230.00 estate. 

Lawyers are now asking that Davis be ordered into court to “show cause why she should not be held in contempt of Court for serving materially false sworn responses.” They’re also seeking sanctions against Davis, including attorney fees. They also want Davis to answer questions again.

Liberty Counsel, the firm that represented Davis in her First Amendment appeals, said in an email that “being a co-administrator of her mother’s estate did not transfer title to Kim. Kim’s mother wanted her property to go to her grandchildren.”

“Kim Davis provided answers and documents responsive to those interrogatories and document requests from the plaintiffs. Kim answered the propounded questions truthfully,” the firm said, and then quoted a Bible verse: “As Proverbs says, ‘The one who states his case first seems right until another comes forth to challenge him.’ The plaintiffs should be cautious in their use of inflammatory allegations. Their allegations should be based on facts and litigated in court, not via slanderous accusations in the media.” 

In 2015, after the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Davis would not issue David Ermold and David Moore a marriage license based on her personal religious beliefs. 

In court, her lawyers argued she should have been protected by the First Amendment — but a Court of Appeals panel didn’t buy that, saying last March that she  “cannot raise a Free Exercise Clause defense because she is being held liable for state action, which the First Amendment does not protect.”  

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