U.S. Supreme Court denies hearing in Kim Davis's marriage equality challengehttps://www.advocate.com/news/supreme-court-marriage-equality 🔗Christopher Wiggins (10 Nov 2025)
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear the appeal of former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, the onetime county official who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the landmark 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
By denying review, the Court let stand lower-court rulings that found Davis personally liable for violating the constitutional rights of same-sex couples she refused to serve after Obergefell was decided. The move leaves marriage equality intact, marking a quiet but significant moment in a decade-long legal battle over the scope of religious exemptions in public office.
Davis, who rose to prominence for her defiance of the 2015 ruling, had asked the Court to revisit not only her liability but Obergefell itself. GLAD Law legal director Josh Rovenger, whose organization helped argue the original case, said the petition was always unlikely to succeed. "It would really be anomalous for the Court to take a case with such a narrow fact pattern and use it to revisit Obergefell," Rovenger told The Advocate before the court's announcement.
For Jim Obergefell, whose case made history nearly a decade ago, the Court's refusal to hear Davis's appeal is cause for relief but not complacency. "They've turned the idea of freedom on its head," he told The Advocate ahead of the announcement. "Unless we stand up for what it truly means, we risk losing the very promise of equality itself."
