{"id":29789,"date":"2025-11-11T17:25:56","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=29789"},"modified":"2025-11-11T17:25:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:25:56","slug":"supreme-court-declines-to-hear-kim-daviss-bid-to-overturn-gay-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/11\/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-kim-daviss-bid-to-overturn-gay-marriage","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Declines to Hear Kim Davis\u2019s Bid to Overturn Gay Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left: johnscotbarrowman \/ Instagram | Right: rob-maxwell \/ unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Supreme Court has declined to hear a request from Kim Davis to revisit its ruling on gay marriage in the Obergefell<\/em> ruling. Davis is a former Kentucky county clerk who gained national attention after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015, shortly after the Supreme Court had declared in Obergefell v. Hodges<\/em> that states could not ban same-sex marriage. She was later sued by one of those couples. In 2023, a judge ordered Davis to pay $260,000 in attorneys\u2019 fees and other expenses as well as $100,000 to the couple. Davis would appeal the ruling, eventually bringing it to the Supreme Court, where she asked to use the First Amendment in her defense against the lawsuit. Additionally, she asked the court to completely wipe out the Obergefell<\/em> ruling, stating<\/a> it \u201chad no basis in the Constitution\u201d and left her \u201cwith a choice between her religious beliefs and her job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis would have needed four votes to have her petition granted. The court did not provide any explanation for why it refused to hear her request. Although Davis\u2019s petition has been largely painted as a long shot, many progressives had watched the case carefully and suggested that Obergefell<\/em> might be overturned in similar fashion to Roe v. Wade<\/em>. Justice Clarence Thomas<\/a> was critical of the original 5-4 ruling in Obergefell<\/em>, stating in his dissent that the majority was \u201croaming at large in the constitutional field guided only by their personal views.\u201d In 2020, he also said the decision had \u201cruinous consequences for religious liberty.\u201d In the Dobbs <\/em>case in 2022, which overturned Roe<\/em>, Thomas directly named Obergefell<\/em> as a decision that could be revisited for \u201csubstantive due process precedents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mat Staver, Chairman of Liberty Counsel, which is representing Davis, said the organization will continue to fight the Obergefell<\/em> ruling. \u201cThis cannot be right because government officials do not shed their constitutional rights upon election,” he said. “Like the abortion decision in\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>,\u00a0Obergefell<\/em>\u00a0was egregiously wrong from the start. This opinion has no basis in the Constitution. We will continue to work to overturn Obergefell. It is not a matter of if, but when the Supreme Court will overturn\u00a0Obergefell<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court has declined to hear a request from Kim Davis to revisit its ruling on gay marriage in the Obergefell ruling. Davis is a former Kentucky county clerk who gained national attention after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015, shortly after the Supreme Court had declared in Obergefell…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":29792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court Declines to Hear Kim Davis\u2019s Bid to Overturn Gay Marriage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Supreme Court declined Kim Davis\u2019s appeal to revisit same-sex marriage ruling, leaving Obergefell intact as her legal battle continues.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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