Supreme court rulings on gay marriage

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As a general practice, the court does not grant review without considering a case at at least two consecutive conferences. Now she wants to cancel gay marriage.

After the district court ruled against Davis, she was ordered to pay $100,000 in damages to the couple and $260,000 for their attorneys' fees and expenses.

“If ever a case deserved review,” her lawyers wrote in their unsuccessful appeal to the high court, “the first individual who was thrown in jail post-Obergefell for seeking accommodation for her religious beliefs should be it.”

But Notre Dame Law School Professor Richard Garnett said Davis’ appeal was a “minor, fact-bound petition” that didn’t clearly give the justices the opportunity to revisit their 2015 decision.

"Although various commentators and activists have spent weeks claiming that a vehicle for overturning Obergefell was being considered by the justices, no informed court observers ever thought that the court would grant review in this case,” he said.

Now, he's worried.

But there has not been the same kind of conservative movement to take back marriage rights for same-sex couples as there was to get rid of the constitutional right to an abortion.

There are an estimated 823,000 married same-sex couples in the United States, more than double the number in 2015, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, a think tank that researches sexual orientation and gender identity issues.

"There’s good reason for the Supreme Court to deny review in this case rather than unsettle something so positive for couples, children, families, and the larger society as marriage equality," Mary Bonauto, a senior director with LGBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said when Davis filed her appeal.

More: Justice Alito still doesn't like court's gay marriage decision but said it's precedent

Davis made headlines when she refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples after the Supreme Court's 2015 decision, landing her in jail for five days on a contempt of court charge.

When Davis was sued by David Ermold and David Moore, she argued that legal protections that provide immunity for public officials prevented the challenge.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v.
Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who was successfully sued in 2015 by a same-sex couple to whom she denied a marriage license, plans to fight the $100,000 judgment in court. And not without reason, said Brielle Winslow-Majette, deputy director of Garden State Equality, a statewide LGBTQ advocacy group based in Montclair and Asbury Park, New Jersey.
"I think that's a valid concern," she said.

"You're probably going to see something just like that, where a county clerk refuses to issue a license, they're held in contempt and they sue, and it works its way up the courts."

'Scary, but real'

Some LGBTQ+ households are starting to ask themselves: What's your plan of action? Which is scary, but real."

If a worst-case scenario is barreling down on the LGBTQ+ community, it will encounter speed bumps.

In New Jersey, for example, there is strong pro-equality language in the marriage statutes.

They had talked of getting married in 2027, or 2028. She contended that she had appeared before the court as an individual — “not as a state actor and not as a government official with some form of sovereign or qualified immunity.” And in that capacity, she argued, she could not be “on the hook for tort liability as a person, yet have no personal defenses” – such as the First Amendment – “available to her.”

Davis also asked the justices to overrule their decision in Obergefell, arguing that a right to same-sex marriage “had no basis in the Constitution” and left her “with a choice between her religious beliefs and her job.” “If ever there was a case of exceptional importance,” she asserted, “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.”

After Davis filed her petition for review, Moore and Ermold initially waived their right to respond.

Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte withdrew from WorldPride, Washington, D.C.

It all begs the question: Could Obergefell v. Wade, is the marriage equality ruling next?

Michael and Jacob clicked. I've never been happier to lose.

Still, Carl Esbeck, an expert on religious liberty at the University of Missouri School of Law, said there’s "not a chance" the court is going to overturn Obergefell.

That’s in part because Congress passed a law in 2022 guaranteeing federal recognition of same-sex marriage rights, he said.

"It would be a useless act to overturn Obergefell," Esbeck said.

The days of Obergefell are numbered.”

Advocates for marriage equality likewise said the threat isn’t over.

“This frivolous case now belongs in the trash bin of history. Hodges, due to her religious beliefs.

Davis asked the court to overturn the decision as she appealed the case in which she was ordered to pay compensation to a couple after she denied them a marriage license.

More: Gay marriage at the Supreme Court?

But her lawyers plan to go further. Hodges. After the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell, Kentucky’s governor at the time, Steve Beshear, sent a letter to the clerks in all of the state’s counties, directing them to “license and recognize the marriages of same-sex couples.”

Although a county attorney told Davis that she would be required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Davis opted instead to stop issuing marriage licenses to anyone – gay or straight.

A few weeks later, Michael got a text from his partner: "We need to talk."

The upshot: Michael Tribbey and Jacob Rainey flew to Los Angeles for a rush wedding on Jan. 3. They may not happen. Her job description included issuing licenses – such as marriage licenses – to county residents. I wouldn't be surprised if same-sex marriage was on the docket."

Which is why, as Pride Month launches with the usual parades, celebrations, festivals and music events, it is also looking nervously over its shoulder.

'There are things percolating'

The anti-DEI sentiments out of Washington are affecting Pride events on a national level.

Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, be simply overturned by the court's current 6-3 conservative majority, as Roe v. “Now is not the time to let down our guard.”

Will the Supreme Court revisit its ruling on same-sex marriage?

Updated on Oct. 22 at 6:28 p.m.

In 2015, shortly after the Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage in Obergefell v.

Alito dissented in Obergefell, contending that the Constitution leaves the same-sex marriage “question to be decided by the people of each state.” During a recent appearance in Washington, D.C., Alito again criticized the decision but indicated that he was “not suggesting that the decision … should be overruled.”
Two of the other dissenters in Obergefell – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas – are still on the court.