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.
Can’t anything make it to the supreme court with enough money?
It doesn’t mean they’ll hear it, but you get to be declined like this?
Pretty much.
You go to lower court, lose, go to appeals court, lose, and then you can petition the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court usually says no just because they get a thousand petitions a year, and have enough time for like ten. That’s still true with this heavily conservative court.
Except for the fact that there was enough right-wing bankrolling to keep the case going, it doesn’t mean much.