WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court docket on Monday rejected a name to overturn its landmark choice that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
The justices turned away an attraction from Kim Davis, the previous Kentucky court docket clerk who refused to concern marriage licenses to same-sex {couples} after the excessive court docket’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Davis had been attempting to get the court docket to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and legal professional’s charges to a few 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 court docket 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 just lately he was not advocating that or not it’s overturned.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court docket in 2015, has mentioned that there are occasions when the court docket ought to appropriate errors and overturn choices, because it did within the 2022 case that ended a constitutional proper to abortion.
However Barrett has urged just lately that same-sex marriage is likely to be in a unique class than abortion as a result of individuals have relied on the choice once they married and had kids.
Anna Moneymaker through Getty Pictures
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 court docket ruling. She defied court docket orders to concern the licenses till a federal choose jailed her for contempt of court docket 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.
Comply with the AP’s protection of the U.S. Supreme Court docket at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.