The Supreme Court is set to consider an appeal from former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who is asking the justices to overturn the 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
The case is on the agenda for the justices’ closed-door conference Friday. Davis’ appeal seeks to reverse a lower court order requiring her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple she denied a marriage license, according to The Associated Press.
The court could announce as early as Monday whether it will take up the case.
Davis’ lawyers urged the court to act, citing the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, the only current justice who has publicly called for overturning Obergefell v. Hodges.
Thomas was one of four dissenters in the 2015 decision, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who also remain on the court. Roberts has not revisited the issue since his dissent, while Alito has continued to criticize the ruling but recently said he was not advocating for its reversal.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court after Obergefell, has said some past decisions should be corrected, citing the 2022 ruling that ended the constitutional right to abortion. However, Barrett has also suggested that same-sex marriage could be treated differently because many Americans have relied on the decision to marry and start families.
Davis became a national figure in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Rowan County, Kentucky, citing her faith. She was jailed for contempt of court before being released when her staff issued the licenses without her name.
The Kentucky Legislature later passed a law removing county clerks’ names from marriage licenses statewide. Davis lost her reelection bid in 2018.
