In the absence of state law (Commonwealth law actually) Davis's job was whatever the hell the federal courts said it was. And i don't find a four times divorced (and married to the same man twice) clerk to be a paragon of marital virtue.
She had the option of resigning the position if the directive of the federal court was against her conscience to the extent that she could no longer do the job that the court ordered her to do...which she was obligated by her oath to do.
That aside, i still have not gotten an answer to the question of what authority government has at any level to presume to regulate marriage, which is a private matter between the two parties involved.
If you say “Yeah, but the USCC found the KY marriage law unconstitutional,” then you’re still stuck with the reality that at that point, KY had *no* marriage law. Technically. A clerk had no authority to issue a marriage license to any couple at that point.
Her job was to do as the Federal court instructed her. Her actions were acceptable to the court after the court instructed her.
The smart thing to do would have been for the Governor to issue an executive order stopping the issuance of marriage licenses on the basis that they were an unconstitutional infringement on Rights identified under the 10th Amendment.
Now if the US government wants to send in Regular Army troops to enforce the order, good luck with that. It isn't 1861 any more, and the Feds would lose badly.
Stopped right there. Nobody needs to bow to this kind of unconstitutional tyranny.