She’s back!
Kim Davis, the notorious county clerk in Kentucky who was once locked up for six days for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is asking the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 2015 marriage equality ruling as part of her effort to appeal hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines tied to her refusal to issue the licenses.
Davis’ petition for writ of certiorari, filed last month, asks the court a series of questions, including whether the First Amendment’s Free Exercise clause protects individuals from emotional distress damages and whether Obergefell v. Hodges should be overturned. Davis is eager to reverse nearly $400,000 in fines covering emotional damages and attorney fees stemming from her refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.
Davis is represented by Liberty Counsel, which describes itself on its website as a “Christian ministry that proclaims, advocates, supports, advances, and defends the good news that God in the person of Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins and offers forgiveness and eternal life to all who accept him as Lord and Savior.”
“Obergefell was wrong when it was decided and it is wrong today because it was grounded entirely on the legal fiction of substantive due process,” the petition argues. “Even if substantive due process is not overturned entirely, Obergefell should be because the right articulated is neither carefully described nor deeply rooted in the nation’s history.”
The petition further insists on reversing Obergefell “because the Constitution makes no reference to same-sex marriage and no such right is implicitly recognized by any constitutional provision.”
There is no indication that Davis’ attempt to reverse the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision — in which the court ruled 5-4 in favor of same-sex marriage rights under the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution — imperils nationwide marriage equality in the United States, where any such bid to overturn that ruling would face enormous odds, even under a deeply conservative Supreme Court.
In addition to Obergefell, couples who have already married are further protected by the Respect for Marriage Act, which was passed and signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022 and requires states to respect existing same-sex and interracial marriages — regardless of what the Supreme Court could do.
The Supreme Court is expected to determine this fall whether to accept the case, according to ABC News, which reported on Davis’ appeal
