The Supreme Court has declined to revisit its 2015 landmark decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The justices refused to hear an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who made national headlines for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the Obergefell ruling. Davis sought to overturn a lower-court order requiring her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple she denied a license.
Her legal team cited the views of Justice Clarence Thomas, the only current justice who has called for the Obergefell decision to be overturned. Thomas, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, dissented in 2015. Since then, Roberts has been silent on the issue, while Alito has continued to criticize the decision but has stated recently that he is not advocating for its reversal.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court after Obergefell, has indicated that while the court sometimes must overturn precedents, same-sex marriage may be different from issues like abortion due to the reliance of couples who married and started families based on the ruling.
Davis’s refusal to issue licenses, citing religious beliefs, led to her being briefly jailed for contempt of court. After her release, her name was removed from marriage licenses in accordance with a new state law. Davis lost her bid for reelection in 2018.