The Supreme Court rejected Kim Davis's appeal to overturn its landmark decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, upholding the ruling and a lower court's order for her to pay damages.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from former Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis, who sought to overturn the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized same-sex marriage across the nation. The justices, without comment, turned away Davis's attempt to reverse a lower-court order requiring her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney's fees to a same-sex couple she denied a marriage license. Davis, who gained national attention for refusing to issue licenses based on her religious beliefs, had invoked Justice Clarence Thomas's past calls to erase the same-sex marriage ruling. While Thomas has advocated for overturning the decision, other 2015 dissenters, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, have not recently pushed for its reversal. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, though open to overturning past precedents, suggested same-sex marriage might be distinct from abortion due to people's reliance on the decision. Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson lauded the Court's decision, emphasizing that refusing constitutional rights has consequences. Davis was previously jailed for contempt of court and later lost her reelection bid in 2018.
