The Supreme Court refused to hear a petition from a former Kentucky County Clerk who said that, due to her religious beliefs, she should not be required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The decline to hear the case closed a decade-long string of lawsuits that investigated the boundaries between public duty and religious freedom.
In 2015, after the Obergefell v. Hodges case–the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide–former clerk Kim Davis refused to sign same-sex marriage licences. She said she was exercising her First Amendment rights.
Davis turned away same-sex couples and said it was her faith that was prohibiting her from following the court ruling. Subsequently, a federal judge jailed her in Sept. 2015 for contempt.
Davis filed the case with aid from the Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit organization promoting Christian values.
“Obergefell was egregiously wrong from the start,” said Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver. “It is not a matter of if, but when the Supreme Court will overturn Obergefell.”
The attorney for the couple who were refused a marriage license, William Powell, says that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, and Davis infringed upon their rights.
Author: Lainey Porter
Photos courtesy of Manuel Balce & Timothy D. Easley, AP News
Editor: Hannah Clove
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