“Today love won,” was the statement made by Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, on Monday after the Supreme Court voted not to overturn its landmark precedent, making gay marriage a constitutional right.
Instead, they denied the appeal made by a former Kentucky county clerk, Kim Davis, and then sentenced her to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees.
Who is Kim Davis?
Kim Davis started refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples right after Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that gave gay couples the right to marry, in 2015. She was caught on camera that year refusing a gay couple a marriage license, and it went viral.
Davis claimed her Christian faith was the reason she was ‘unable’ to issue the licenses. After refusing multiple gay couple marriage licenses and being called out on social media, she began refusing all couples’ marriage licenses, along with 14 other counties in the south.
What ensued was two years of lawsuits. Six couples who were refused licences sued Davis and won; Davis appealed every decision against her.
In the end, Davis was jailed for five days, sent back to her desk, and forced to give licenses (albeit without her signature).
Davis stuck with consistent messaging throughout the process, stating.
“I never imagined a day like this would come, where I would be asked to violate a central teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself regarding marriage. To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience.”
Davis lost her re-election campaign in 2019. She has been battling in court since, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and appealing quite literally every Supreme Court decision that goes against her (she’s even appealing the decisions against her appeals! Appeal-ception!).
Supreme Court says no
The appeal that was denied in this case was sent after lower courts rejected Davis’ claim that the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment right to free exercise of religion protects her from liability in the case.
If the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of Davis, it would have set a precedent that would allow any judge to deny a gay couple a marriage license, as long as they cited religious reasons.
William Powell, an attorney representing the plaintiffs involved, said, « The Supreme Court’s denial of review confirms what we already knew: same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, and Kim Davis’s denial of marriage licenses in defiance of Obergefell plainly violated that right. »
‘Love won today’
After the Supreme Court’s shocking decision to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022, nothing was guaranteed in this case. Roe v Wade, of course, was the ruling that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to abortion and legalized the procedure nationwide.
The ruling to overturn Roe v Wade emboldened far-right Christian nationalist groups and sent hope through the MAGA crowd that they might be able to turn back the clock on human rights.
The Supreme Court is making a statement with this ruling: when it comes to cuts, human rights are not on the table.
