Supreme Court rejects Kim Davis’ request to reconsider landmark gay marriage ruling

November 11, 2025

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a petition filed by former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis to revisit and overturn the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The Christian Post reports that the high court, in an orders list released Monday morning, denied without comment the petition for a writ of certiorari in the case of Kim Davis v. David Ermold, et al.

The Supreme Court also denied a motion from the Alabama-based Foundation for Moral Law to file a friend-of-the-court brief “out of time.”

Shortly after the June 2015 5-4 decision that states could not ban same-sex marriages, Davis garnered national attention after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples while serving as a clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky.

Davis served several days in jail after she was held in contempt of court for her refusal to issue the licenses and was also sued by a couple to which she refused to give a license.

In late December 2023, U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning of the Eastern District of Kentucky issued a memorandum opinion and order for Davis to pay $260,000 in attorneys fees and other expenses for her actions in 2015.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision in March, prompting Davis to appeal to the Supreme Court in July.

Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver, whose organization is helping to represent Davis, said in a statement Monday: “Like the abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, Obergefell was egregiously wrong from the start. This opinion has no basis in the Constitution. We will continue to work to overturn Obergefell. It is not a matter of if, but when the Supreme Court will overturn Obergefell.”

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