The Supreme Court on Monday morning turned down a request from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky, to reconsider its 2015 decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. In a brief, unsigned order, the justices rejected Davis’ petition for review of a ruling by a federal appeals court upholding an award of $100,000 to a gay couple to whom she had refused to issue a marriage license. That petition had also asked the justices to overrule the 2015 decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, arguing that a right to same-sex marriage “had no basis in the Constitution.”
The dispute began more than a decade ago, when – in the wake of the court’s decision in Obergefell – Davis, whose job description included issuing licenses, refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple, David Moore and David Ermold. Davis then decided to stop issuing marriage licenses to any couple, gay or straight. This included Moore and Ermold, whom she told that she was acting “under God’s authority” and that they could get a marriage license in a different county.
Two different lawsuits followed: one by Moore and Ermold, who contended that she had violated their constitutional right to marry; and one challenging her refusal to issue any marriage licenses. In the latter case, U.S. District Judge David Bunning ordered Davis to issue licenses to both gay and straight couples. That prompted Moore and Ermold to try once again to obtain a license, but Davis and her deputies rejected that request, as well. Kentucky eventually enacted a law that would accommodate county clerks like Davis by removing their names and signatures from the forms used for marriage licenses.
Moore and Ermold’s case against Davis went to trial, and a jury awarded each of them $50,000. Davis then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which upheld that award. It rejected Davis’ argument that requiring her to issue a marriage license to Moore and Ermold would have violated her First Amendment right to freely exercise her religion. In that court’s view, because Davis was acting on behalf of the government when she refused to issue the license, her actions were not protected by the First Amendment.
Davis next went to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to take up her appeal. She asked the justices to decide whether she could rely on the First Amendment as a defense in the lawsuit, as well as to consider overruling the court’s decision in Obergefell. She contended that the 2015 ruling “had no basis in the Constitution” and left her “with a choice between her religious beliefs and her job.”
Davis’ petition for review, along with Moore and Ermold’s brief in opposition and Davis’ reply, was distributed to the justices on Oct. 22 for consideration at their conference on Nov. 7. She would have needed at least four votes for her petition to be granted, but Monday’s order indicates that she could not get them.
To join the FAA News WhatsApp Status, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment