US Supreme Court Rejects Call To Overturn Same-Sex Marriage

The supreme court has rejected a call to overturn the landmark decision that legalised same-sex marriage across the US.

The appeal was presented by former Kentucky court clerk, Kim Davis, who spent six days in jail after she refused to issue marriage licenses to a same sex couple on religious grounds in the wake of the high court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v Hodges.

Davis was appealing a lower court decision on Ermold v. Davis that would see her liable to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney fees to a couple she had refused to give a marriage licence to.

“For me, this would be an act of disobedience to God,” she said at the time.

The words of Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the four to dissent in 2015 and the only justice who has continued called to overturn the same sex-marriage ruling, were used repeatedly by Davis’ lawyers.

“If ever there was a case of exceptional importance, the first individual in the Republic’s history who was jailed for following her religious convictions regarding the historic definition of marriage, this should be it,” her petition argued.

Justices held a private meeting on Friday 7 November to consider whether they would hear the case, deciding to turn it away without comment.

Refusing constitutional rights comes with consequences, says HRC 

Mat Staver, founder of the conservative legal organisation representing Davis, Liberty Counsel, said in a statement that he would continue to fight to overturn Obergefell.

“Like the abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, Obergefell was egregiously wrong from the start. This opinion has no basis in the constitution,” he said.

Some conservatives had been hoping the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority would see a reconsideration to Obergefell, given that three of the four dissenting justices from 2015 were still on the court.

The appeal comes as LGBTQIA+ rights in the United States are increasingly under attack from the Trump administration and those emboldened by his movement.

Currently, nine states have either introduced legislation aimed at blocking new marriage licenses for same-sex couples or passed resolutions urging the Supreme Court to reverse Obergefell as soon as possible, including Michigan, Montana, and South Dakota.

The Human Rights Campaign president, Kelley Robinson, praised the court’s refusal to hear the case.

“The supreme court made clear today that refusing to respect the constitutional rights of others does not come without consequences,” Robinson said in a statement.