A federal judge has ordered former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to explain why she did not disclose an inheritance that is now the subject of a state lawsuit.
In a ruling Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Adkins declined to hold Davis in contempt of court for allegedly hiding an inheritance, according to a filing in the U.S. Eastern District of Kentucky.
Instead, he has ordered her to respond to allegations she knowingly withheld information about an inheritance to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in outstanding damages.
Davis garnered national attention in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the grounds it violated her religious beliefs. Her denials were ruled unconstitutional, and in November 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in Davis’ case, one that could have threatened Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark case that legalized same-sex marriage in 2015.
In 2023, a federal jury ruled Davis owed $100,000 in damages to one of the couples she denied a license: David Moore and David Ermold. After attorneys fees and court expenses, that amount has now ballooned to $565,285.91.
In a separate lawsuit filed earlier this year, the couple accused Davis in Rowan Circuit Court of lying under oath about what properties and assets she owned in order to avoid paying.
The lawsuit says Davis and her brother, Darold Rayburn Bailey Jr., inherited a $735,230 property from their mother last year, and Davis transferred her share of the property to her brother, a sister-in-law, husband and son between April and May 2025.
The cash value of Davis’ share is more than $200,000, according to court filings.
Now, Adkins is ordering Davis to explain why those transfers weren’t brought before federal court as part of mandated disclosure.
“Defendant does not deny the existence of these certified public records, does not address if or why these documents are outside of the scope of Plaintiffs’ requests, and gives no reason for not producing complete responses and documents,” the order reads.
Despite finding the records “fall squarely” within the scope of discovery, Adkins declined to hold Davis in contempt.
The couple’s attorney, Michael Gartland, told WEKU he’s not ruling out an appeal to that decision.
“I would have held her in contempt because this court already held her in contempt and put her in jail years ago for failing to issue the licenses after the court ordered her to do so,” Gartland said. “So I thought there was a chance.”
In response to a request for comment from WEKU, a spokesperson for Liberty Counsel, the Christian litigation firm that represents Davis, her attorney said they would comment only after they had responded to the judge’s order.
The order gives Davis’ team a Nov. 16 deadline to do so.
In a previous legal filing, her attorneys argued the proposed motions in federal court were premature and that an order could not be made until the outcome of the lawsuit in Rowan Circuit Court, where Ermold and Moore are looking to undo Davis’ transfers.
Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel chairman and Davis’ attorney, told the Lexington Herald-Leader she did not lie under oath and answered specific questions with specific answers.
