A former Kentucky county clerk has asked the US Supreme Court to hear her case, which aims to overturn the court’s 2015 landmark decision that legally recognized same-sex couples across the country as married.
ABC News reported that Kim Davis, a clerk who refused in 2015 to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the grounds that the action violated her Christian religious beliefs — and subsequently was jailed for six days — asked the Supreme Court last month to consider her case. Her suit argues that the First Amendment protection of free exercise of religion allows her to withhold marriage licenses from couples whose views of marriage contradict her beliefs.
Lower courts have already ruled against Davis. A federal appeals court panel decided in March 2025 that she “cannot raise a Free Exercise Clause defense because she is being held liable for state action, which the First Amendment does not protect.”
ABC News reported that Davis’ petition “appears to mark the first time since 2015 that the court has been formally asked to overturn the landmark marriage decision. Davis is seen as one of the only Americans currently with legal standing to bring a challenge to the precedent.”
In the petition, Davis’ attorney, Mathew Staver, said the case should be considered one of “exceptional importance,” noting that Davis is “the first individual in the Republic’s history who was jailed for following her religious convictions regarding the historic definition of marriage.”
Davis is represented by Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit legal organization. In a news release, Liberty Counsel explained that the case began in 2015 after Davis asked the Kentucky Legislature for a religious exemption from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She eventually received it, but two men explicitly sought out Davis to get a marriage license.
“The two men could have gone to any number of nearby clerks to get a license,” Liberty Counsel stated. “But they wanted Davis’ name on their license.”
The organization later stated in the release, “The two men told GQ magazine in December 2015 that they had never even discussed ‘marriage’ before they heard about Davis on social media.”
The two men then sued Davis for emotional damages. According to Liberty Counsel, a jury ordered Davis to pay $100,000, and the same judge who jailed Davis for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples ordered her to pay an extra $260,000 for attorney’s fees.
In the release, Staver said that the case demonstrates how Obergefell “threatens the religious liberty of Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman.”
“A person cannot stand before the court utterly defenseless while facing claims of emotional distress for her views on marriage. Yet, that is the result of Obergefell, which led these courts to strip Davis of any personal First Amendment defense,” Staver continued. “Obergefell cannot just push the First Amendment aside to punish individuals for their beliefs about marriage.”
According to ABC News, Davis’ petition calls for the Supreme Court justices to treat same-sex “marriage” as they did abortion and allow individual states to decide how to recognize same-sex couples. The petition also points out that in his concurrence with the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, Justice Clarence Thomas had explicitly called for the court to revisit its earlier ruling on same-sex “marriage.”
The outlet reported that the Supreme Court is expected to consider Davis’ petition this fall. If her case is accepted, it would likely be heard in spring 2026 and decided by the end of the year. Legal experts told ABC News they expect the justices will want more challenges to Obergefell to arise before they revisit their 2015 decision.
ABC News also reported that individual states are already introducing legislation that attempts to regulate same-sex “marriage” at the local level, with at least nine states either hoping to stop marriage licenses from being issued to same-sex couples or urging the Supreme Court to reverse Obergefell.
However, other states are moving in the opposite direction. As Zeale previously reported, advocates for same-sex “marriage” in Ohio are working to collect signatures for a proposed constitutional amendment that would grant same-sex “marriages” the same legal recognition as other married couples.