"The justices turned away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney's fees to a couple denied a marriage license."
"Her lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling. Thomas was among four dissenting justices in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other dissenters who are on the court today. Roberts has been silent on the subject since he wrote a dissenting opinion in the case. Alito has continued to criticize the decision, but he said recently he was not advocating that it be overturned."
"Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court in 2015, has said that there are times when the court should correct mistakes and overturn decisions, as it did in the 2022 case that ended a constitutional right to abortion. But Barrett has suggested recently that same-sex marriage might be in a different category than abortion because people have relied on the decision when they married and had children."
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling. Davis sought to overturn a lower-court order requiring her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple denied a license. Her lawyers cited Justice Clarence Thomas’s call to erase the ruling; Thomas was among four 2015 dissenters, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Barrett has noted some decisions may be overturned but also raised reliance interests tied to marriage and children. Davis defied orders, was jailed for contempt, released after staff issued licenses, and later lost reelection; Kentucky removed clerks’ names from licenses.
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