Former county clerk Kim Davis has made an appeal that asks the US Supreme Court to overturn same-sex marriage
BY DIVA STAFF, IMAGE BY SOFIA HERNANDEZ/UNSPLASH
It’s been 10 years since the US Supreme Court extended marriage rights to same-sex couples. For the first time since these rights were gained, the justices will consider whether to take up a case, made by former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, that explicitly asks them to overturn that decision.
Davis was notably jailed for six days in 2015 following her refusal to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple on religious grounds, even though the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling had passed.
She is now appealing for a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages as well as $260,000 for attorneys’ fees. However, if the case is considered, it could represent a threat to federal protections for same-sex marriage.
ABC News reported that in a petition writ of certiorari filed in July, Dabis argues that the First Amendment’s protection for the free exercise of religion protects her from personal liability.
She also calls the Obergefell case “egregiously wrong”. In the petition, her attorney, Mathew Staver, wrote: “The mistake must be corrected.” Staver continued to describe Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion to detain the former clerk as “legal fiction”.
The petition stated: “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.”
If the Supreme Court agrees to take the case, it would be the first major challenge to the landmark ruling made 10 years ago.
“Not a single judge on the US Court of Appeals showed any interest in Davis’ rehearing petition, and we are confident the Supreme Court will likewise agree that Davis’s arguments do not merit further attention,” said William Powell, the attorney for the couple who sued Davis over not marrying them, in a statement to ABC News.
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