U.S. Supreme Court weighs longshot appeal to overturn decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis makes a statement to the media at the front door of the Rowan County Judicial Center in Morehead, Ky., Sept. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)

WASHINGTON — A call to overturn the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide is on the agenda Friday for the justices’ closed-door conference.

Among the new cases the justices are expected to consider is a longshot appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples following the court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower court order for her to pay US$360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple whom she denied a marriage licence.

The justices could say as early as Monday what they’ll do.

In urging the court to take up her case, Davis’ lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.

Thomas was one of four dissenting justices in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other dissenters who also remain on the court.

Roberts has been silent on the subject since he wrote a dissenting opinion in the case. Alito has continued to criticize the decision, but said recently he was not advocating that it be overturned.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court in 2015, has said there are times when the court should correct mistakes and overturn decisions, as it did in the 2022 case that ended a constitutional right to abortion.

But Barrett has suggested recently that same-sex marriage might be in a different category than abortion because people have relied on the decision when they married and had children.

Davis drew national attention to eastern Kentucky’s Rowan County when she turned away same-sex couples, saying her faith prevented her from complying with the high court ruling. She defied court orders to issue the licences until a federal judge jailed her for contempt of court in September 2015.

She was released after her staff issued the licences on her behalf but removed her name from the form. The Kentucky Legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licences.

Davis lost a re-election bid in 2018.

Mark Sherman, The Associated Press