A Kentucky county clerk who has defied numerous court orders to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples is due in federal court today after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked for her to be held in contempt.

But lawyers for for Kim Davis will use the hearing to again ask U.S. District Judge David Bunning to temporarily stay his order requiring her to issue the documents while she exhausts her appeals. The Rowan County clerk's attempts to secure an emergency stay from a federal appellate court was denied last week, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene on Monday, Reuters noted.

The case has been in the courts since July, when four same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit in challenging office policy not to grant them licenses even though the nation's highest tribunal had legalized gay marriage across the nation in its landmark Obergefell decision. Bunning quickly rules for the plaintiffs, noting that Davis' religious objections do not "excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform," the Christian Science Monitor recalled.

But Davis told spouses-to-be this week that she was acting "under God's authority" as she again turned down their applications, The New York Times reported.

"To me this has never been a gay or lesbian issue. It is about marriage and God's word. It is a matter of religious liberty," Davis detailed in a statement, according to Reuters.

The official, who has been in the county clerk business for 27 years, meanwhile, has "her own history of marital struggles," NBC News noted. An Apostolic Christian, Davis was divorced three times and had children out of wedlock before experiencing a religious awakening, the network explained.

"To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God's definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience," the 49-year-old said in a statement published by the Liberty Council this week. "It is not a light issue for me. It is a Heaven or Hell decision. ... It is about marriage and God's Word."