In 2015, Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, gained national attention when she refused to sign marriage certificates for gay couples, citing her religious beliefs. Davis was temporarily jailed for her refusal. She was also ordered by a lower court to pay $100,000 in emotional damages to a same-sex couple she refused to grant a marriage license and $260,000 in attorneys’ fees. Now, Davis is requesting the Supreme Court review its 2015 Obergefell decision, which essentially legalized gay marriage throughout the country.

Davis’s legal representation is asking the court to overturn its decision in Obergefell because of its lack of religious supports for people like Davis who believe marriage is between a man and woman. “Kim Davis’ case underscores why the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn the wrongly decided Obergefell v. Hodges opinion because it threatens the religious liberty of Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman. A person cannot stand before the court utterly defenseless while facing claims of emotional distress for her views on marriage,” stated Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver, who is presenting Davis. “Yet, that is the result of Obergefell, which led these courts to strip Davis of any personal First Amendment defense. Obergefell cannot just push the First Amendment aside to punish individuals for their beliefs about marriage.”

Obergefell was passed by a narrow 5-4 margin. If revisited, the makeup of the judges would be considerably different than 2015, with the lone Republican-appointed judge who supported the case, Anthony Kennedy, having been replaced in 2018 by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Davis’s legal team has argued that the legal decision that overturned Roe vs Wade could be used to overturn Obergefell as both original decisions relied on what is called “substantive due process.” Bill Powell, counsel for the couple that sued Davis for denying them a license, didn’t take Davis’s petition to the Supreme Court seriously. “Not a single judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals showed any interest in Davis’s rehearing petition, and we are confident the Supreme Court will likewise agree that Davis’s arguments do not merit further attention,” he told The Hill.

While support for same-sex marriage remains the norm throughout the US, there have been some indications that it may be losing some of its appeal to Republicans. A recent Gallup poll found Republican support for same-sex marriage had declined to its lowest point since 2016. Support had dropped from its peak 55% to 41%. And while Republicans have mostly shifted their focus to issues such as transgender athletes in women sports, it may not be long before some begin looking at the “slippery slope” of gay marriage that has led to such things as male athletes competing against biological women.