US Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling remains unchanged after the justices declined to revisit or overturn the landmark 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
According to NBC Washington, the court rejected an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a case that once captured national attention.
Davis had asked the court to reverse a lower court ruling that ordered her to pay 360,000 dollars in damages and attorney’s fees to one of the couples she denied. The justices turned away her appeal without comment, keeping the lower court’s order intact.
Kim Davis first drew nationwide attention in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses in Rowan County, Kentucky, citing her religious beliefs.
Her refusal to follow the law led to her brief jailing for contempt of court that September. She was released after her staff issued the licenses without her name on the documents.
Following the controversy, Kentucky’s legislature amended the law to remove the names of all county clerks from marriage licenses statewide.
Davis’s lawyers based much of their appeal on Justice Clarence Thomas’s past remarks, in which he questioned the validity of the 2015 same-sex marriage decision. Thomas was among the four dissenting justices in the original case, Obergefell v. Hodges, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who both remain on the court today.
Since Obergefell v. Hodges, opinions within the court have varied.
Chief Justice Roberts has remained silent on the issue since writing his dissent in 2015. Justice Alito has continued to voice criticism but clarified that he was not calling for the decision to be overturned.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the bench after the ruling, has said that the court may sometimes correct past errors, as it did with the 2022 decision ending the federal right to abortion. However, she has also suggested that same-sex marriage may be different because many Americans have relied on the ruling to form families and raise children.
Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson praised the court’s refusal to reopen the debate.
In her public statement, she said, “The Supreme Court made clear today that refusing to respect the constitutional rights of others does not come without consequences.”
LGBTQ advocates across the country expressed relief, saying the decision reaffirms stability for couples whose marriages depend on the legal protection first guaranteed in 2015.
The court’s choice not to hear Kim Davis’s appeal confirms that the US Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling remains the law of the land.
It reinforces marriage equality across all 50 states and highlights the court’s reluctance to revisit a precedent that has shaped the lives of millions of couples in the United States.
