The Supreme Court declined to consider a case on same-sex marriage in the United States a decade after its landmark opinion granting same-sex couples the constitutional right to marry.
Instead, the country’s highest court decided to toss an appeal brought by former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis amid fear from LGBTQ advocates that the court would revisit the decision.
The court did not provide a reason for why it declined the petition brought by Davis, who gained national attention in 2015 for defying a court and refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses because of her religious beliefs.
She had asked the Supreme Court to reverse the order requiring her to pay more than $300,000 to a couple denied a marriage license, as well as overturn the same-sex marriage decision.
The Supreme Court has a more conservative makeup since it decided Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who authored the 5-4 majority opinion a decade ago, retired from the court in 2018, and it now holds a 6-3 conservative majority.
LGBTQ advocates have feared ever since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022, after it had been precedent with Roe v Wade for fifty years, that same-sex marriage could be next.
In a separate opinion in that case, Justice Clarence Thomas urged the court to reconsider its Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. The court’s consideration of the petition set off alarm bells.
At least four of the nine justices would have had to vote to hear Davis’ case to revisit the marriage decision.
A decade after the Supreme Court decided same-sex marriage was a right nationwide, polling finds the vast majority of Americans support it. Sixty-eight percent of U.S. adults support it being a legal right, according to Gallup.
After the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision on same-sex marriage, Davis became the face of the opposition due to religious freedom. She spent five nights in jail after being found in contempt of the court for defying a federal order.
A Kentucky couple, David Ermold and David Moore, sued Davis after they were denied a license, and they were successful at trial in 2023, when Davis was ordered to pay $360,000 in damages and lawyers’ fees.
She appealed the judgment on First Amendment grounds and claimed the court was wrong in recognizing the constitutional right to same-sex marriage. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled against Davis in March.
