The Supreme Court was asked to take up a case explicitly asking them to overturn the same-sex marriage ruling from 10 years ago, but it remains unknown if the justices will agree to hear the case.
Kim Davis, who has been involved in combatting the same-sex marriage ruling for a decade, is appealing a verdict from a jury and filed a writ of certiorari last month with the Supreme Court.
The justices have refused to take up the issue in the past, but in the wake of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision being overturned, concern is growing in the community that the conservative justices could take up the case in the next term.
Here’s what you need to know:
Kim Davis’ case
Davis is the former county clerk in Rowan, Kentucky who was jailed for several days in 2015 after she refused to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple.
She was the sole authority that was responsible for issuing marriage licenses on behalf of the government in the state, but refused to issue the license for the gay couple on religious grounds, ABC News reported.
She is appealing a damages verdict of $100,000 for emotional damages and $260,000 for attorneys’ fees. Davis is now taking her case to the Supreme Court to say the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized same-sex marriage infringes on her religious First Amendment right.
It’s not the first time Davis has tried to bring her case to the justices. She petitioned in 2019 for the Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit, but the justices declined to hear her case. In 2015, a panel of judges in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected her claim.
Now, Davis and Liberty Counsel are seeking for the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court rejection and Obergefell.
Where things stand with the court
In the fall, the Supreme Court will hear Davis’ petition in a closed-door meeting where the justices consider which cases they will be adding to their docket to consider for the next term.
If accepted, the case would be added to the docket and later scheduled for oral arguments from both sides. A decision would then be handed down by the end of June 2026.
Conservatives Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito both concurred with the 2019 decision to not take up Davis’ case, but politics within the court may have shifted in the years since.
Davis is arguing that marriage rights for same-sex couples under the 14th Amendment’s due process protection is “egregiously wrong.” She is arguing the issue of marriage should be treated the same as the court’s 2022 decision on abortion.
In the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which took away the constitutional right to an abortion across the country, Thomas noted in the opinion that the court should “reconsider” its past rulings, including same-sex marriage.
The case concerns LGBTQ+ advocates who are closely watching the changing political landscape and the possibility that a decade of precedent could be overturned. In the 10 years since the original Obergefell decision, three conservative justices have been added to the court by President Donald Trump, shifting the makeup right and resulting in decisions that have upset Democrats for years.
How it would impact marriages
If the justices were to overturn the ruling, existing marriages would stay intact. The Respect for Marriage Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Joe Biden in 2022, guarantees federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages.
It was passed after the 2022 Supreme Court abortion decision and the justices’ alluding to more changes coming.