Supreme Court rejects appeal from county clerk who sought to overturn same-sex marriage decision

The Supreme Court on Monday said it will not revisit its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, leaving intact the 2015 protections granted to couples in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Justices rejected an appeal brought by Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who was held in contempt after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples due to her religious beliefs. 

The Court declined to take up her appeal without explanation and without any noted dissents. 

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Though Davis's appeal centered largely on First Amendment issues and questions of religious protection, her lawyers also requested that the Supreme Court consider overturning the 5-4 ruling in Obergefell, or the 2015 decision that granted same-sex couples the constitutional right to marry. 

It is time for a "for a course correction" on Obergefell, her lawyers argued.

Davis was briefly jailed in 2015 after she refused to issue the marriage licenses to same-sex couples due to her religious beliefs, prompting a federal judge to hold her in contempt. 

She was also ordered by the court to pay $100,000 in damages to the couple, and to cover their legal fees.

"If ever a case deserved review," Davis's lawyers said in their appeal, "the first individual who was thrown in jail post-Obergefell for seeking accommodation for her religious beliefs should be it."

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Though her appeal was considered a long shot, it had prompted fresh speculation about whether the court's conservative majority might agree to review the seminal case, especially in light of the court's 2022 decision to overturn abortion protections in Roe v. Wade.

Others noted that three of the justices that dissented from the majority in Obergefell - Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts - remain on the court.

Davis's lawyers also hewed closely to language used by Justice Clarence Thomas in their appeal, who used a concurring opinion in 2022 to urge the court to "reconsider" gay marriage and other constitutional protections after it overturned Roe v. Wade. 

Even so, it takes four votes to get a case onto the docket - a somewhat heavy lift for the court. The decision also comes at a time when justices have agreed to review a number of politically charged cases in their upcoming term.