The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to review a petition from a former county clerk in Kentucky who asked justices to overturn the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling that legalized marriage for same-sex couples.
Former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis washttps://abcnews.go.com/WNN/video/defiant-kentucky-county-clerk-jailed-failure-issue-marriage-33531775jailed for contempt of court for nearly a week in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple on religious grounds. David Ermold and David Moore filed a lawsuit against Davis and a jury found her personally liable for emotional damages and attorney fees.
Davis appealed the $360,000 verdict, arguing the First Amendment of the US Constitution protects her from personal liability. She also claimed the Supreme Court's decision extending marriage rights for same-sex couples under the 14th Amendment'shttps://abcnews.go.com/Politics/constitution-supreme-court-due-process-trump-deportees-analysis/story?id=121485100due process clause was "egregiously wrong."
The nine justices met privately on Friday to decide whether to take the case, which had the potential to reverse the 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage and return the issue back to the states.
The high court declined the petition without comment. The denial leaves in place a U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that held Davis personally liable.
"The Supreme Court's denial of review confirms what we already knew: same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, and Kim Davis's denial of marriage licenses in defiance of Obergefell plainly violated that right," said Bill Powell, an attorney for Ermold and Moore. "This is a win for same-sex couples everywhere who have built their families and lives around the right to marry."
Believing marriage as a union between one man and one woman, Davis stopped issuing any marriage licenses from June 29 to early September 2015 while she sought an accommodation for her religious beliefs. Then-Gov. Steve Beshear allowed Davis to issue altered licenses without her name on them. In December 2015, newly elected Gov. Matt Bevin granted her the same accommodation under an executive order. Then in April 2016, the Kentucky legislature unanimously codified the religious exemption by removing the names of all clerks from the state's marriage licenses.
In 2017, Ermold and Moore amended their complaint and sued Davis in her individual capacity for emotional distress. According to the Liberty Counsel, which represents Davis, the Supreme Court also leaves unresolved an important constitutional question of whether the First Amendment protects government officials sued in their individual capacity for actions taken based on their religious beliefs.
"Davis was jailed, hauled before a jury, and now faces crippling monetary damages based on nothing more than purported hurt feelings," Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a news release. "By denying this petition, the High Court has let stand a decision to strip a government defendant of their immunity and any personal First Amendment defense for their religious expression. This cannot be right because government officials do not shed their constitutional rights upon election."
The Liberty Counsel says it will continue to work to overturn Obergefell, and the conservative legal group isn't alone. NPR reports that, in this year alone, at least nine states have entertained bills or resolutions criticizing Obergefell or have sought to limit marriage to heterosexual couples.
On Oct. 24, the Texas Supreme Court adopted language allowing judges to refuse to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies due to religious beliefs.
Copyright 2025 WKU Public Radio
