WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court docket on Monday rejected a name to overturn its landmark determination that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
The justices, with out remark, turned away an attraction from Kim Davis, the previous Kentucky courtroom clerk who refused to challenge marriage licenses to same-sex {couples} after the excessive courtroom’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Davis had been making an attempt to get the courtroom to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and legal professional’s charges to some denied a wedding license.
Her attorneys repeatedly invoked the phrases of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the many 9 justices has referred to as for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.
Thomas was amongst 4 dissenting justices in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the opposite dissenters who’re on the courtroom right this moment.
Roberts has been silent on the topic since he wrote a dissenting opinion within the case. Alito has continued to criticize the choice, however he mentioned lately he was not advocating that it’s overturned.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the courtroom in 2015, has mentioned that there are occasions when the courtroom ought to appropriate errors and overturn selections, because it did within the 2022 case that ended a constitutional proper to abortion.
However Barrett has instructed lately that same-sex marriage is perhaps in a distinct class than abortion as a result of folks have relied on the choice after they married and had youngsters.
Human Rights Marketing campaign president Kelley Robinson praised the justices’ determination to not intervene. “The Supreme Court docket made clear right this moment that refusing to respect the constitutional rights of others doesn’t come with out penalties,” Robinson mentioned in an announcement.
Davis drew nationwide consideration to japanese Kentucky’s Rowan County when she turned away same-sex {couples}, saying her religion prevented her from complying with the excessive courtroom ruling. She defied courtroom orders to challenge the licenses till a federal decide jailed her for contempt of courtroom in September 2015.
She was launched after her workers issued the licenses on her behalf however eliminated her title from the shape. The Kentucky legislature later enacted a legislation eradicating the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.
Davis misplaced a reelection bid in 2018.
