The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to reconsider its 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which established a constitutional right to same-sex marriage under the Fourteenth Amendment.
On Nov. 10, the Court issued an unsigned order rejecting a petition from Kim Davis, the former clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, who gained national attention for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the Obergefell decision. Davis argued that the ruling was “erroneous” and lacked a constitutional basis.
By declining to take up the case, the justices have left the Obergefell precedent intact, meaning that same-sex marriages remain legal and recognized in all 50 states.
Davis, who was briefly jailed in 2015 for contempt of court, sought to overturn damages awarded to couples who sued her for denying them marriage licenses. Her appeal could have provided the Court with an opportunity to revisit Obergefell, but the justices chose not to comment on their decision not to hear the case.
Although the order did not include any public dissents, Justice Clarence Thomas has previously suggested that he believes the Obergefell decision should be reevaluated, stating that it is “at odds with the Constitution’s text.” However, no such statement accompanied this latest action.
Despite some conservative groups calling for a reevaluation of Obergefell, public support for same-sex marriage has increased in the past decade. Recent Gallup data shows that more than 70 percent of Americans support marriage equality. For now, advocates are viewing the Court’s inaction as a victory for stability.
In a written testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign wrote that “Marriage equality is settled law and must not be undermined by a radical ideologue hostile to decades of Constitutional history and analysis.”
Still, the brief order leaves the door open for future challenges. Ongoing disputes related to religious liberty and state laws concerning marriage recognition could lead to potential clashes between equality and free exercise claims.
President Donald Trump, who appointed three of the Court’s current justices, has not publicly commented on the survival of the ruling. For the moment, same-sex couples and their allies are celebrating what they view as the preservation of a hard-won right and a reprieve from potential backlash.
