When Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis refused to issue marriage licenses following the 2015 Supreme Court Decision legalizing gay marriage, she cited “God’s authority” and became a hero to right-wingers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and then-candidate, now Kentucky governor Matt Bevin, who said: “Without any question I support her.” When Davis was later arrested for refusing to comply with a court order to issue licenses, Bevin even tweeted about visiting the clerk in jail.

Link to tweet

Now, after a string of court losses, the time is approaching for her to pay more than $220,000 in attorneys’ fees awarded to plaintiffs who sued Davis and the state of Kentucky over the clerk’s “protest.” These days, Bevin is no longer unquestionably supporting Davis. Instead, the governor’s lawyers have argued in federal court that Davis should pay up, personally if need be.

Davis — ousted from her clerk job in an election last November — has filed her own legal brief in the case, countering that Kentucky taxpayers must be forced to pay for her religious objections: “The Commonwealth is liable,” her legal team argues, “because Davis acted as a state official for purposes of marriage licensing.”