Breaking: U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether to revisit marriage equalityhttps://www.advocate.com/news/supreme-court-marriage-equality-reconsideration 🔗Christopher Wiggins (23 Oct 2025)
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider whether to hear a challenge that could reopen the question of who can get married. The challenge to marriage equality is being brought by Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who in 2015 defied a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
As SCOTUSblog reports, the justices will privately discuss Davis's petition on November 7. Davis, who was briefly jailed a decade ago after citing "God's authority" in refusing to issue licenses to a gay couple, is now asking the high court not only to reverse her loss in the lower courts but to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that established a constitutional right to marry for same-sex couples nationwide.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected Davis's claim that her refusal was protected by religious freedom, ruling that she acted as a government official, not a private citizen. A jury had previously awarded $50,000 each to the couple, David Moore and David Ermold, who were denied a license.
According to SCOTUSblog, if the justices decline to take up the case, that decision could be announced as soon as November 10. But if they agree to hear it, the case would mark the court's most direct confrontation with Obergefell in years and a potentially seismic moment for LGBTQ+ rights in the post-Roe judicial era.
