The Supreme Court declined Monday to reconsider its landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage.
In a brief order, the justices rejected, without comment, Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis’ petition to consider overturning the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision.
Davis, who was briefly jailed after she declined to issue marriage licenses based on a religious objection to the 2015 ruling, urged the justices to reverse Obergefell’s “legal fiction of substantive due process.”
“The damage done by Obergefell’s distortion of the Constitution is reason enough to overturn this opinion and reaffirm the rule of law and the proper role of this Court,” her petition filed by Liberty Counsel stated.
Court watchers believed the petition was a longshot, though it gained widespread media attention.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said they will “continue to work to overturn Obergefell.”
“Davis was jailed, hauled before a jury, and now faces crippling monetary damages based on nothing more than purported hurt feelings,” Staver said in a statement. “By denying this petition, the High Court has let stand a decision to strip a government defendant of their immunity and any personal First Amendment defense for their religious expression. This cannot be right because government officials do not shed their constitutional rights upon election.”
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Davis’ First Amendment and qualified immunity claims in March, keeping in place a judgement that requires her to pay $100,000 in emotional damages and $260,000 in legal fees to a gay couple who sued.
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