Kim Davis refused same-sex marriage license in 2015. Now she wants to cancel gay marriage. [View all]

Source: USA Today

July 24, 205 | Updated July 25, 2025 7:47 a.m. ET


WASHINGTON – A former Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 2015 because of her religious beliefs is hoping the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority wants to scrap the court’s 10-year-old decision extending marriage rights to LGBTQ+ couples.

Kim Davis asked the court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges in an appeal filed on July 24 about the compensation she was ordered to pay a couple after denying them a marriage license.

Mat Staver, head of Liberty Counsel, the conservative legal group representing Davis, said that decision threatens the religious liberty of Americans who believe marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman. "The High Court now has the opportunity to finally overturn this egregious opinion from 2015," Staver said in a statement.

Mary Bonauto, a senior director with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said Davis' legal team is trying to shoehorn an opportunity to relitigate Obergefell into a narrow legal question of whether the former clerk should have to pay damages. "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," Bonauto said in an emailed response.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/07/24/supreme-court-marriage-equality-overturn-obergefell/85360954007/