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Kim Davis, center, with her son, Nathan Davis, by her side, spoke on Monday outside the courthouse in Morehead, Ky.Credit Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press

MOREHEAD, Ky. — Undaunted in her religious faith but facing the specter of another courtroom reckoning, Kim Davis, the Rowan County clerk, who was jailed for defying a federal judge’s order that she issue marriage licenses, said Monday that she would not stop her employees from processing licenses for same-sex couples.

But the condition that Ms. Davis attached to her admittedly makeshift solution — that the licenses would lack her authorization — was an indication that her protracted legal and political battles would not go away soon. Ms. Davis’s strategy could spur new litigation to challenge the licenses, and it was unclear how Judge David L. Bunning of Federal District Court, who jailed Ms. Davis on Sept. 3, would respond.

“Ms. Davis hopes that these good-faith measures will be sufficient to satisfy the plaintiffs and the court, and that she will not have to, once again, be incarcerated for exercising her faith and not abandoning her convictions,” one of her lawyers, Harry Mihet, said. “She understands and she recognizes, however, that there are significant problems with this emergency stopgap approach.”

But the severity and depth of any such problems and questions, especially those focused on whether licenses issued without Ms. Davis’s consent were legal, were essentially matters of rhetoric on Monday. Ms. Davis raised doubts about the licenses, but Mr. Mihet would not say whether the clerk would ask a court to intervene. A spokeswoman said State Attorney General Jack Conway, who has not issued a formal opinion, believed the licenses were valid.

Gov. Steven L. Beshear, who has rebuffed Ms. Davis’s requests that he call the Legislature into special session to address the marriage-related duties of clerks, echoed Mr. Conway’s assessment. Speaking to reporters in Louisville, Mr. Beshear said the licenses issued by Ms. Davis’s office “substantially comply with the law in Kentucky, and they’re going to be recognized as valid in the commonwealth.”

But on Monday night, the American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern about the approach in Rowan County.

“We have concerns about the validity of the marriage licenses issued today given the further alteration of the forms,” James Esseks, an A.C.L.U. lawyer, said in an email. “We brought this case to ensure that our clients and all eligible couples could legally marry in Rowan County. We are reviewing the changes to determine our next steps.”

The divergent opinions, which fostered an atmosphere of tempered uncertainty here, came on Ms. Davis’s first day in her office since her release last Tuesday from the jail where she was held after Judge Bunning found her in contempt of court. Ms. Davis, an Apostolic Christian, stopped issuing all marriage licenses this summer, citing her religious beliefs, after the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.

In August, Judge Bunning ruled that Ms. Davis must issue licenses, and two higher courts refused to block the judge’s order. But Ms. Davis refused to comply and was subsequently jailed; she was set free after five nights and after her deputy clerks began issuing licenses, and Judge Bunning ordered that she not interfere.

She did not say whether she would do so until Monday morning, when, minutes before her office was scheduled to open, she stood in the doorway of Rowan County’s courthouse and lamented “a seemingly impossible choice that I do not wish on any of my fellow Americans: my conscience or my freedom.”

“I just want to serve my neighbors quietly,” she said, “without violating my conscience.”

To balance her religious convictions with Judge Bunning’s demands, she said, the licenses would not carry her authorization; instead, they would bear a notation that they were issued “pursuant to federal court order.”

Within hours, one of her deputies, Brian Mason, issued a marriage license to two women from Lexington. To some of Ms. Davis’s supporters, the decisions of Mr. Mason, who began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Sept. 4 and has declined to discuss his views on same-sex marriage, amounted to acts of betrayal.

“That man right there, while Kim was suffering in jail, was a coward, enough to be signing these homosexual marriage licenses,” Elizabeth Johnston, a mother of nine from Ohio, said as she pointed toward Mr. Mason before a couple, Carmen and Shannon Wampler-Collins, sought a license.

The women, partners of more than two decades, said they were unconcerned by warnings that the license could be invalid; after they exited the courthouse, Shannon Wampler-Collins displayed a license that showed Ms. Davis’s title, county clerk, obstructed.

“I just would hope that, if she needs to make a stand for her religious beliefs, which I completely respect, that she would get out of the way so someone else can do the job,” said Carmen Wampler-Collins, who received a license while opponents of same-sex marriage shouted their dismay.

Through the commotion, Ms. Davis remained in her office, where the blinds were drawn and she worked under a decorative plate that read, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”