The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a high-profile appeal seeking to overturn its landmark 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, leaving the ruling in Obergefell v.
Hodges fully intact.
The justices, maintaining their 6–3 conservative majority, rejected an appeal from former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis. Davis became a national figure in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Obergefell ruling, citing her Apostolic Christian faith. Her refusal prompted lawsuits, a contempt-of-court order, and a brief stint in jail.
Lower courts have consistently ruled against Davis, concluding that her First Amendment claim cannot shield her from liability as a government official. Davis has been ordered to pay more than $360,000 in damages and legal fees to plaintiffs David Ermold and David Moore, who said she violated their constitutional right to marry.
In 2022, U.S. District Judge David Bunning rejected Davis’ argument that issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples infringed on her religious liberty. “Davis cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while performing her duties as an elected official,” he wrote. A jury later awarded the couple $100,000, with additional attorney fees bringing the total judgment far higher.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that view earlier this year, ruling that Davis’ actions amounted to “state action” and therefore could not be protected under the First Amendment. The panel also noted that Davis had effectively waived her claim that Obergefell should be overturned.
The Supreme Court’s refusal to revisit Obergefell arrives more than three years after its conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade, a move that emboldened some conservatives who hoped the court might reconsider other landmark decisions rooted in substantive due process.
While the court’s ideological balance has shifted rightward since 2015, Monday’s order indicates no appetite—at least for now—to reopen the debate over same-sex marriage. Notably, conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito previously criticized Obergefell, writing in a 2020 statement that the ruling carries “ruinous consequences” for religious liberty. But neither the court nor the Biden administration weighed in further as Davis’ latest appeal proceeded.
Davis, elected as Rowan County clerk before the showdown a decade ago, served six days in jail after defying a court order to issue marriage licenses. Ermold and Moore ultimately obtained their license while she was incarcerated.
Had the Supreme Court taken up Davis’ appeal and reversed Obergefell, states could once again move to restrict or ban same-sex marriage. For now, the 2015 precedent remains firmly in place, continuing to guarantee marriage equality nationwide. Photo by Benson Kua, Wikimedia commons.
