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The Supreme Court on Monday refused to revisit its 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, turning away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds.
The justices declined to hear Davis’s case, effectively upholding a lower-court ruling that ordered her to pay $360,000 in damages and legal fees to two couples she denied licenses shortly after the Court’s historic ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Davis, once a national symbol of conservative resistance to same-sex marriage, had asked the high court to overturn Obergefell entirely — arguing that the ruling violated her constitutional right to free exercise of religion.
Court stays silent, Thomas’s past criticism looms
The justices offered no explanation for their decision, as is customary in such denials. But the move leaves Obergefell firmly intact — and signals little appetite from the current Court to revisit the question, despite past criticism from some conservative members.
Justice Clarence Thomas, who joined the 2015 dissent, has repeatedly called for reconsidering the same-sex marriage precedent, describing it as “at odds with the Constitution.” However, Thomas issued no written dissent Monday.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who also dissented in Obergefell, have since avoided direct calls to reverse the ruling. Alito has continued to question the decision’s reasoning but said recently that he was “not advocating its overturning.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, appointed in 2020, has stated that the Court should sometimes correct “mistaken” precedents — as it did in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. But Barrett has also suggested that same-sex marriage presents a different reliance interest, given that millions of couples have since married and started families under the ruling.
Kim Davis’s long legal battle
Davis, who was Rowan County clerk in eastern Kentucky during the Obergefell fallout, drew national attention when she defied court orders to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Citing her Apostolic Christian beliefs, she stopped issuing licenses altogether until a federal judge jailed her for contempt of court in September 2015.
She was released several days later after her deputies began issuing the licenses, though Davis’s name was removed from the forms — a change later codified by the Kentucky legislature.
Davis lost her 2018 reelection bid, but her legal challenges continued for nearly a decade. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld damages to two couples she had refused to marry, finding her liable for violating their constitutional rights.
A lasting precedent
Monday’s decision leaves Obergefell untouched and reinforces its status as a settled constitutional right — at least for now.
“By refusing to take up this case, the Supreme Court has reaffirmed that marriage equality is the law of the land,” said Alphonso David, president of the LGBTQ legal group Freedom for All Americans. “No one is above the Constitution, no matter their position or their beliefs.”
While social conservatives have continued to press for legal exemptions based on religious freedom, the Court’s refusal to revisit Obergefell suggests a reluctance to reopen one of the nation’s most consequential cultural battles.
