A convoluted order issued by a federal judge on Monday means that two same-sex couples in eastern Kentucky still cannot obtain marriage licenses, even though the outcome will "prolong the likely violation of their constitutional rights," the Associated Press reported.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning denied Kim Davis' request to delay an earlier ruling, in which he had ordered the county clerk to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. But Bunning then delayed his latest ruling, effectively putting the issue on ice while Davis appeals to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the newswire explained.

The Rowan County clerk had turned away the same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses earlier this month, noting that her Christian faith bars her from authorizing such unions, the New York Times recalled.

With her move, Davis defied the federal judge who had instructed her to issue the licenses in compliance with the Supreme Court's landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision, in which the nation's highest tribunal had legalized same-sex marriage across the United States.

"This is not something I decided because of this decision that came down," Davis last month testified in federal court. "It was thought-out and, you know, I sought God on it."

In his initial decision, Bunning had ruled that issuing a marriage license does not impede Davis's freedom to believe what she wants and that "her religious convictions cannot excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform as Rowan County Clerk," the Christian Science Monitor reported.

Attorneys, meanwhile, seem split over how to interpret Bunning's latest ruling, the AP noted. Dan Canon, who represents the gay couples, insisted that Davis remains under the judge's original order, while Mat Staver, who represents Davis, countered that the order essentially grants the clerk's request for more time.

Davis, who has been in the county clerk business for 27 years, has been divorced, remarried, and divorced again, according to the Christian Science Monitor. When asked if she would issue a marriage license to a person who has been divorced, she told the newspaper that "that's between them and God."