The justices on the nation’s high court have spoken. And Americans are stunned.
Because the Supreme Court made a decision that will have huge cultural ramifications.
The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a crucial appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who became a symbol of resistance against the forced acceptance of same-s*x marriage.
Davis had asked the justices to take a hard look at the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that imposed g*y marriage across the nation, but the high court declined
Davis’s fight stems from her refusal back in 2015 to hand out a marriage license to David Ermold and David Moore, a same-s*x couple.
She stood her ground based on her deeply held Christian beliefs, and a lower court in 2022 ruled that she trampled on their constitutional rights. Her July petition aimed to challenge that verdict and push for a full Supreme Court review.
To get the case on the docket for oral arguments, at least four justices needed to vote yes. The Monday order gave no clues about who, if anyone, backed hearing it.
Still, this silence doesn’t erase the fact that some on the bench have openly questioned the shaky foundations of Obergefell.
One voice that’s been loud and clear is Justice Clarence Thomas. In his powerful 2022 concurrence in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case—which finally axed Roe v. Wade—he called for a fresh examination of key rulings built on flimsy legal ground.
“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote in that opinion.
He didn’t stop there, adding: “Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.” Davis’s legal team leaned on these words in their Supreme Court filing, seeing them as a roadmap to victory.
Thomas also took aim at the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling, which opened the door for married couples to get birth control, and the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision that struck down state laws against consensual g*y s*x.
Kim Davis paid a heavy price for her convictions. In 2015, she spent five grueling days behind bars for defying the order to issue those licenses, becoming the first American jailed in the wake of Obergefell for simply asking for a religious accommodation.
The hits kept coming: a jury slapped her with a $100,000 verdict for emotional damages to the couple, plus another $260,000 in their attorneys’ fees.
Represented by the nonprofit Liberty Counsel, Davis’s petition pulled no punches. “If ever a case deserved review, the first individual who was thrown in jail post-Obergefell for seeking accommodation for her religious beliefs should be it,” the firm argued, framing her as a martyr in the culture wars.
They went further, urging the court to dismantle not just Obergefell but the entire “legal fiction of substantive due process.”
This isn’t the first time the Supreme Court has brushed off Davis. Back in 2020, they rejected her earlier appeal.
Yet, with Thomas’s words hanging in the air and a conservative majority in place, hope flickers for future challenges.
Stay tuned to the Conservative Column.
