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.
What’s more distressing IMO is people making disparaging comments when they clearly don’t understand the U.S. legal system.
Essentially anyone who loses a case in a Federal Appellate court, like Kim Davis did in the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals, has the right to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court then decides if they want to hear the case or not. It’s a good thing.
I don’t like Kim Davis nor her agenda but that’s no reason to upend over two centuries of procedure.