Supreme Court rejects call to overturn same-sex marriage decision

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to revisit its 2015 landmark ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The justices rejected an appeal by Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Davis had asked the court to overturn the lower court’s order directing her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple she denied a license.

Davis’s legal team had cited comments from Justice Clarence Thomas, who has previously questioned the legitimacy of the 2015 ruling and called for it to be overturned.

Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justice Samuel Alito were among the dissenters in the original case.

While Roberts has not revisited the issue publicly, Alito has continued to criticize the decision but recently said he was not advocating its reversal.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court after the 2015 ruling, has said the court can overturn past decisions when necessary but suggested same-sex marriage may differ from other cases, such as abortion, because many Americans have relied on it in their family lives.

Davis, who cited her Christian faith in refusing to issue marriage licenses, became a national figure in 2015 when she defied court orders and was jailed for contempt.

She was released after her deputies issued the licenses without her name. The Kentucky legislature later removed clerks’ names from marriage licenses statewide. Davis lost her reelection bid in 2018.