The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a long shot effort to overturn its 2015 landmark decision that guaranteed same-sex marriage nationwide. The appeal came from former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who directly asked the justices to overrule Obergefell v. Hodges after a jury awarded damages to a couple she refused to issue a marriage license to nearly a decade ago.
“The Court can and should fix this mistake,” Davis’s attorneys wrote in court filings.
In a brief order, the justices declined to take up Davis’s appeal, listing it among dozens of other petitions reviewed during the Court’s weekly closed-door conference. There were no noted dissents from the decision.
Though legal analysts viewed Davis’s appeal as a long shot, the petition sparked concern among LGBTQ advocates, since several conservative justices who dissented in the original Obergefell ruling remain on the bench.
A Decade-Old Dispute
Kim Davis rose to national prominence in 2015 when, as the clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Her refusal came in defiance of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized same-sex marriage as a national right.
Among those denied a license were David Ermold and David Moore, who later sued Davis. A judge ordered her to resume issuing marriage licenses, but Davis continued to resist, citing religious objections. She was subsequently jailed for five days for contempt of court. During that time, the couple obtained their marriage license.
In response to the controversy, Kentucky lawmakers later passed a measure allowing clerks to remove their names from marriage certificates, an attempt to balance religious objections with compliance under federal law.
The Legal Battle Continues
Years later, a jury awarded Ermold and Moore $100,000 in emotional distress damages, along with $260,000 in attorneys’ fees. Davis continued to challenge the verdict, arguing that her actions were protected under the First Amendment as an exercise of her religious beliefs.
Her appeal asked the Supreme Court to recognize a personal religious defense for government officials who act on faith-based objections while performing public duties. In addition to that argument, Davis’s lawyers urged the Court to overturn Obergefell entirely, asserting that doing so would nullify the couple’s lawsuit.
However, the couple’s attorneys argued that Davis had waived that argument earlier in the litigation and could not properly raise it before the Court. “The Court should hold her to that representation,” they wrote, adding that addressing the question of Obergefell’s validity in this case would require “thorny questions” about how such a ruling might affect Davis’s liability.
A Quiet Denial, but a Clear Message
By declining to hear Davis’s appeal, the Supreme Court effectively let stand the lower court’s decision holding her accountable for violating the rights of same-sex couples. The justices issued no written opinion, and none publicly dissented from the denial.
While Davis’s petition was widely considered a longshot, it reignited debate over religious liberty, same-sex marriage, and the responsibilities of public officials. For now, however, the Court’s brief order leaves the 2015 Obergefell decision — and the nationwide guarantee of marriage equality — firmly in place.
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As judgement was brought by God against ancient Israel for breaking His commandments, so His judgement is being brought against our once overwhelmingly Christian nation for our corruption and immorality that is in direct conflict with the Lord.