The Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky who infamously refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. This refusal led to a lawsuit that mandated her office to comply with issuing those licenses.
Davis faced legal action in 2015 when she declined to provide marriage licenses based on her religious beliefs, as reported by NBC News.
Her recent appeal, filed ten years later, garnered significant attention. Many worried that the court might reconsider the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling from 2015, which legalized same-sex marriage, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Davis’s office in Rowan County initially refused to issue a marriage license to couples David Moore and David Armold, who then pursued a civil rights lawsuit. Ultimately, Davis was ordered to license them, but after her continued refusal, she was jailed for contempt of court.
A Breitbart News article published shortly after her imprisonment stated:
Davis is not just invoking her First Amendment rights to abstain from participating in same-sex marriages. This kind of refusal should be respected under the First Amendment, similarly to how the country accommodates those whose faith prohibits them from joining the military.
However, as reported earlier, Davis seems to be asserting the right to use her position to instruct her deputy clerk and others not to issue marriage licenses. It’s questionable whether her individual religious objections can extend to imposing her beliefs on her subordinates.
Moore and Armold eventually secured a marriage license but sought damages for Davis’s initial refusal. A jury subsequently awarded them $100,000 after their case. Davis appealed the decision but lost before taking the matter to the Supreme Court.
Video evidence from 2015 highlights Davis’s refusal to issue the license:
When the situation initially gained traction, Davis, who has had multiple marriages and had a child outside of wedlock, faced accusations of hypocrisy for denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
