Petition filed urging US Supreme Court to reverse same-sex marriage decision

The US Supreme Court is currently deciding whether to hear a case brought by former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who is urging the court to overturn its landmark 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Davis, who became nationally known after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds, leading to her six-day imprisonment for contempt of court, argues that the Obergefell decision was fundamentally flawed. Her attorney, Matthew Staver, told Newsweek he remains hopeful the Supreme Court will take up the case. “It has no basis in the Constitution,” Staver said, criticizing the ruling as “egregiously wrong” and “deeply damaging.”

However, attorneys representing the same-sex couples denied licenses by Davis are confident the court will reject her petition. William Powell, who represented the couples, said, “Not a single judge on the US Court of Appeals showed any interest in Davis's rehearing petition, and we are confident the Supreme Court will likewise agree that Davis's arguments do not merit further attention.”

Legal experts generally agree that the court is unlikely to overturn Obergefell. Daniel Urman, a law professor at Northeastern University, noted to Newsweek that while some justices like Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have shown openness to revisiting the case, others, including Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Chief Justice John Roberts, are less likely to support overturning same-sex marriage rights. Urman added, “Culturally, same-sex marriage has become embedded in American life, and it is still popular in public opinion polls.”

The case presents significant implications. If the Supreme Court were to reverse Obergefell, marriage equality could once again be determined by individual states, many of which do not currently recognize same-sex marriages. The petition filed by Staver frames the issue as one of religious liberty, arguing that the court’s decision has forced individuals like Davis “to find it increasingly difficult to participate in society without running afoul of Obergefell and its effect on other antidiscrimination laws.”

Despite the strong conservative shift in the court following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned federal abortion protections, experts say that same-sex marriage remains broadly supported by the American public. Gallup’s May 2024 poll shows 69 percent of Americans favor legal same-sex marriage, though this reflects a slight decline from previous years.

Legal scholar Paul Collins from the University of Massachusetts Amherst explained that Davis' case is more focused on the jury verdict awarding damages to the couple she denied a license, rather than a direct constitutional challenge to marriage equality. He remarked, “This just isn't the right vehicle for challenging a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.”

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani echoed these views, stating, “Even if the Court were to grant review, it may decide the case on narrow legal grounds and allow for religious accommodations for government officials like Davis instead of invalidating same sex marriage entirely.”

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has long expressed interest in revisiting Obergefell, writing in the 2022 Dobbs opinion that the court should reconsider “all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”

The Supreme Court is expected to decide within the coming months whether to accept the case. At this stage, there is no clear indication of the court’s direction.