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Supreme Court punts on revisiting landmark gay marriage decision
Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images

Supreme Court punts on revisiting landmark gay marriage decision

Kim Davis was briefly jailed after her refusal to issue a same-sex marriage license in 2015.

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal that was thought to be the only case that had standing to challenge the landmark 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized so-called same-sex marriage.

On Monday, Supreme Court justices denied a petition for a writ of certiorari for the case Kim Davis v. David Ermold, et al., according to court documents.

'If ever a case deserved review, the first individual who was thrown in jail post-Obergefell for seeking accommodation for her religious beliefs should be it.'

There were no notable dissents in the order, and no justices recused themselves.

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Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images

The appeal was brought by Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who was briefly jailed after refusing to issue marriage licenses for a homosexual couple who are party to the suit.

Davis was also ordered to pay $100,000 in damages plus another $260,000 in legal fees, according to her attorneys.

Her refusal to issue the marriage license was on religious grounds, raising serious First Amendment questions.

Davis' appeal opens: "If ever a case deserved review, the first individual who was thrown in jail post-Obergefell for seeking accommodation for her religious beliefs should be it."

Of the three questions presented in the petition, the last reads: "Whether Obergefell v. Hodges ... and the legal fiction of substantive due process, should be overturned."

Although Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have previously indicated a willingness to reconsider Obergefell, Davis' case was always considered to be an uphill battle since four justices would need to assent to hearing it.

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Cooper Williamson

Cooper Williamson

Cooper Williamson is a research assistant at Blaze Media and the profiles editor for Frontier magazine. He is a 2025 Publius Fellow with the Claremont Institute.
@Coawi2001 →