Kentucky clerk asks Supreme Court to overturn landmark same-sex marriage ruling

Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk, last month formally filed a petition for the Supreme Court to reconsider its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalized same-sex marriage. Davis served six days in prison in 2015 for refusing to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, which she said violated her Christian beliefs. She is also appealing a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages for the couple. She is also requesting a refund for $260,000 in attorney fees. In her petition, Davis says that the First Amendment should have protected her from punishment. She also argues that the Supreme Court decision was “egregiously wrong.”

Will the court take up the case? Davis is one of the only people with standing to challenge the Supreme Court ruling, since she served both financial penalties and incarceration. The Supreme Court returns for the 2025 term in October and will consider whether to take up Davis’ petition. She argues, along with representing attorney Mathew Staver, that so-called same-sex marriage should be treated similarly to abortion: every state should determine its own laws. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito concurred with a 2020 decision to reject an earlier petition from Davis.

What’s changed since 2015? According to a May Gallup poll, roughly 68% of Americans approve of the same-sex marriage ruling, but there are sharp partisan divides. Roughly 55% of Republicans supported it in 2021 compared to 41% now. Around 88% of Democrats are in favor of the ruling. Even if Obergefell is overturned, the 2022 Respect for Marriage Act guarantees that it would not invalidate same-sex marriages that were already performed. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, nearly 600,000 same-sex couples have married since 2015, and 167,000 are parenting a child. As of this year, 32 states have constitutional or legislative laws on the books that prohibit same-sex marriage according to research by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, but they are unenforceable as long as Obergefell is the law of the land. In the past year, several conservatives have renewed efforts to overturn the 10-year precedent, including some of President Donald Trump’s nominees to federal circuit courts.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard and Nick Eicher discuss the 10-year anniversary of Obergefell with Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel.