Supreme Court weighs longshot appeal to overturn decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide
WASHINGTON (AP) — A call to topple the landmark. Supreme Court legalization decision gay marriage The judges’ closed-door conference on Friday is on the agenda across the country.
Among the new cases the justices are expected to consider is a long-term appeal. KimDavisIn 2015, the court ruled in Obergefell v. Former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after her decision in the Hodges case.
Davis was trying to persuade the court to overturn a lower court order ordering him to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney fees to a couple whose marriage license he denied.
Judges could say what they will do by Monday.
In urging the court to take up the case, Davis’ attorneys repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, the only one of the nine justices to call for expunging the same-sex marriage decision.
Thomas was one of four justices who dissented in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other remaining dissenters on the court.
Roberts has remained silent on the issue since writing a dissenting opinion in the case. Alito continued to criticize the decision but recently said he was not advocating reversing it.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court in 2015, said there are times when the court must correct mistakes and overturn decisions, such as in the 2022 case that ended the constitutional right to abortion.
But Barrett recently suggested that same-sex marriage may be in a different category than abortion because people rely on that decision when getting married and having children.
Davis drew national attention to Eastern Kentucky’s Rowan County when he turned away same-sex couples, saying his faith prevented him from complying with a high court order. He defied court orders until a federal judge jailed him for contempt of court in September 2015.
He was released after his staff issued licenses in his name and removed his name from the form. The Kentucky Legislature later passed a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.
Davis lost his re-election bid in 2018.
