The Supreme Court on Monday declined an opportunity to overturn its landmark precedent recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, tossing aside an appeal that had roiled LGBTQ advocates who feared the conservative court might be ready to revisit the decade-old decision.
Instead, the court denied an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who now faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and legal fees for refusing to issue marriage licenses after the court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges allowed same-sex couples to marry.
The court did not explain its reasoning to deny the appeal, which had received outsized attention – in part because the court’s 6-3 conservative majority three years ago overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion that 1973 decision established. Since then, fears about Obergefell being the precedent to fall have grown.
Crazy that we’re in this situation where the there’s a question over whether a court will overturn its own precedent.
And as with the rest, there’s just nothing to go on here: if your religion prevents you from doing a particular job, there can only be narrow parameters within which someone has to hire you, or keep you on, in this job. If it’s because your religion requires you to wear certain clothing and the job requires you to wear an incompatible uniform, then yeah, they need to figure something out. If it’s a key function of the job that you’re not willing to do, then get on your bike.
It’s happened with SCOTUS before and at least sometimes it’s a good thing. Dred Scott being an example.