Supreme court formally asked to overturn marriage equality

August 13, 2025/in Gov & Politics/by Queer Kentucky

Editor’s note: This story was published in August 2025. On Nov. 10, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Kim Davis’ petition without comment, leaving Obergefell v. Hodges and the judgment against her in place.

The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to overturn its 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, marking the first direct challenge to the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in a decade.

The petition comes from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky who gained national attention after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015, citing her religious beliefs. Davis served five days in jail at the time for defying a federal court order and later lost a civil lawsuit filed by two men she denied a license to marry.

In her request to the high court, Davis is seeking to void more than $350,000 in damages and legal fees awarded to the couple and is urging justices to declare Obergefell unconstitutional. Her legal team argues the decision was wrongly decided and infringes on First Amendment protections for religious liberty.

Mary Bonauto, senior director of civil rights and legal strategies at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said in a statement to Queer Kentucky that Davis’ case is extremely narrow and that her arguments have been rejected by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals multiple times.

“Earlier this year, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against her on the same claims, and then the whole court denied her petition to rehear her case,” she said.

The Supreme Court has not indicated whether it will hear the case. Lower courts have repeatedly rejected Davis’s arguments, and legal experts say the petition faces steep odds. Still, the filing comes as lawmakers in several states have introduced symbolic measures or legislation calling for the ruling to be revisited.

“People from all walks of life and across the political spectrum support or have a live-and-let-live approach to marriage equality and want to focus on other issues,” Bonauto continued. “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.”

If Obergefell were overturned, the Respect for Marriage Act would still require states to recognize existing same-sex marriages, but states could block new marriage licenses for same-sex couples.