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Staff Editor: Gwen Pichette
Email: gpichette@umassd.edu
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a call to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the court case that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide back in 2015.
The appeal to the landmark decision was made by Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who infamously refused to distribute same-sex marriage licenses to couples despite the 2015 decision.
As the official case reads on the Justia U.S. Supreme Court website, “Under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, all states must license a marriage between two people of the same sex and recognize such a marriage if it was lawfully licensed and performed in another state.”
Davis argued that same-sex marriage contradicted her religious beliefs, saying that approving the marriage licenses “would be conflicting with God’s definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman. This would be an act of disobedience to my God.”
She continued to deny court orders to issue the licenses until a federal judge briefly jailed her for contempt of court in September of 2015, 3 months after the Obergefell v. Hodges decision.
District Judge David Bunning eventually concluded that Davis violated the constitutional rights of the couples that she refused licenses to. In the ruling, Bunning argued that Davis “cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while performing her duties as an elected official.”
Since then, Davis attempted to get the court to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a same-sex couple that she unlawfully denied a marriage license to. Her petition against paying these compensatory fees on the grounds of her first amendment rights were denied.
In March of 2025, Davis lost another appeal at the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She then turned to the Supreme Court and raised the question as to whether Obergefell should be overturned in her petition.
This appears to mark the first time since 2015 that the court has been formally asked to overturn the landmark marriage decision.
In a recent filing, Davis said, “The time has come [for a] course correction.”
The Supreme Court swiftly shot Davis’ appeal down, which was considered by many to be a longshot case. Yet, many still remain fearful that LGBTQ+ rights are in jeopardy.
Hypothetically, if the Supreme Court decided to overturn Obergefell, same-sex marriage would still be legal federally.
Thanks to protections like the Respect for Marriage Act which recognizes the constitutionality of same-sex marriage as well as interracial marriage, same-sex marriage is protected on a national level.
However, individual states would be able to refuse to recognize same-sex marriage. This could lead to a similar situation as Roe V. Wade, in which some states it is legalized, and others it is not.
The 1973 landmark decision which established a women’s right to an abortion for over 50 years was overturned in 2022 with the Dobbs v Jackson case, leaving abortion rights up to the states.
Many think that because Roe V. Wade was overturned, Obergefell is not far behind. This fear is exacerbated by the fact that the Supreme Court currently has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has outright called the reconsideration of rulings on same-sex marriage, contraception, abortion rights, and interracial marriage.
“By choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right over the religious liberty interests explicitly provided in the First Amendment, and by doing so undemocratically, the Court has created a problem that only it can fix. Until then, Obergefell will continue to have ‘ruinous consequences for religious liberty.'”
Mat Staver, head of Liberty Counsel, the conservative legal group representing Davis, also said that his group refuses to give up until it is overturned. “It is not a matter of if but when Obergefell will be overturned,” he said in a statement. “The day will come. The days of Obergefell are numbered.”