A federal judge has ordered a defiant Kentucky clerk to jail on Thursday after she defied the U.S. Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling by refusing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, NBC News reported.
U.S. District Judge David Bunning told Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis that she would stay in jail until she complied with his order to issue the licenses. Davis replied "thank you" before she was led out of the courtroom.
Lawyers for four couples who sought marriage licenses from her but were turned down urged the judge "to impose financial penalties sufficiently serious and increasingly onerous to compel Davis' immediate compliance without further delay."
Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses a few hours after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in June, saying she's following "God's word" and that granting licenses to gay couples would violate her religious convictions.
