Supreme Court rejects overturning same-sex marriage ruling
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to revisit its landmark 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The court rejected an appeal from Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Davis had sought to overturn the lower-court judgment requiring her to pay over $360,000 in damages and legal fees for denying a license to a same-sex couple. Her legal team argued that the Obergefell decision was “egregiously wrong” and sought to use it as a path to unwind marriage equality.
By rejecting the appeal without comment, the Supreme Court effectively affirmed that the constitutional right to same-sex marriage remains settled law for now. While some justices had previously expressed openness to revisiting the issue, the court’s decision signals a pause in efforts to dismantle the 2015 ruling.
Legal analysts say the decision avoids what would have been a highly disruptive reversal of rights for millions of married same-sex couples. Still, LGBTQ+ rights advocates caution that the stability of the ruling cannot be taken for granted, given earlier shift in the court’s jurisprudence on other major issues.
