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Among the new cases the justices are expected to consider is a
longshot appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk
who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples
following the court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower court
order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to
a couple whom she denied a marriage license.
The justices could say as early as Monday what they'll do.
In urging the court to take up her case, Davis' lawyers
repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who
alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the
same-sex marriage ruling.
Thomas was one of four dissenting justices in 2015. Chief
Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other
dissenters who also remain on the court.
Roberts has been silent on the subject since he wrote a
dissenting opinion in the case. Alito has continued to criticize
the decision, but said recently he was not advocating that it be
overturned.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court in 2015, has
said there are times when the court should correct mistakes and
overturn decisions, as it did in the 2022 case that ended a
constitutional right to abortion.
But Barrett has suggested recently that same-sex marriage might
be in a different category than abortion because people have
relied on the decision when they married and had children.
Davis drew national attention to eastern Kentucky’s Rowan County
when she turned away same-sex couples, saying her faith
prevented her from complying with the high court ruling. She
defied court orders to issue the licenses until a federal judge
jailed her for contempt of court in September 2015.
She was released after her staff issued the licenses on her
behalf but removed her name from the form. The Kentucky
Legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county
clerks from state marriage licenses.
Davis lost a reelection bid in 2018.
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