August 12, 2025
Kim Davis spent five days in jail in 2015 after refusing to issue a marriage license to David Ermold and David Moore after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Ten years after the Supreme Court extended marriage rights to same-sex couples, justices could consider overturning the landmark decision.
Leading the fight to overturn is Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk, who spent five days in jail for refusing to issue a marriage license to David Ermold and David Moore, a gay couple, over what her attorneys called her “First Amendment” rights.
This happened in 2015 after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in Obergefell v. Hodges.
In a jury verdict, Davis, the former Rowan County clerk, was ordered to pay $100,000 in emotional damages and $260,000 in attorneys’ fees to the married couple.
Last month, in a 90-page filing, Davis asked the conservative high court to review a lower court’s 2022 finding that she violated Ermold and Moore’s constitutional right to marry. Her attorneys want the Supreme Court to revisit the lower court’s decision in the same sex marriage case.
“If ever a case deserved review, the first individual who was thrown in jail post-Obergefell for seeking accommodation for her religious beliefs should be it,” Liberty Counsel, the nonprofit law firm representing Davis, wrote in the petition.
William Powell, an attorney for Ermold and Moore, believes the Supreme Court won’t hear Davis’ case.
“We are confident the Supreme Court, like the court of appeals, will conclude that Davis’s arguments do not merit further attention,” Powell, who serves as senior counsel at Georgetown University’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, said in a statement, according to the Post.
If the conservative majority’s recent decisions are any indication, some Americans fear that the Supreme Court will overturn it. In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating nearly 50 years of federal protection for abortion rights.
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