SAC.The Supreme Court just made its stance crystal clear — and Kim Davis won’t be happy. Nearly a decade after she became a national flashpoint over same-sex marriage, her last attempt to rewrite history has been struck down. But what the justices didn’t say is sparking even more debate.

The Supreme Court on Monday denied a bid from former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis to appeal a $100,000 damages verdict and get the justices to revisit the landmark 2015 same-sex marriage rights decision in Obergefell v Hodges.

The court did not explain its decision.  

Davis gained international attention after she refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple on religious grounds in open defiance of the high court’s ruling and was subsequently jailed for six days. A jury later awarded the couple emotional damages plus $260,000 for attorneys fees.

“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 refusal to issue marriage licenses in defiance of Obergefell plainly violated that right,” said William Powell, an attorney for the couple, David Ermold and David Moore. “This is a win for same-sex couples everywhere who have built their families and lives around the right to marry.”

In a petition for writ of certiorari filed in August, Davis argued First Amendment protection for free exercise of religion immunizes her from personal liability for the denial of marriage licenses.

She also claimed the court’s decision in Obergefell v Hodges — which rooted marriage rights for LGBTQ couples in the 14th Amendment’s due process protections — was “legal fiction.”

“Ten years ago, the Supreme Court rightly recognized that equal protection requires access to legal marriage for same-sex couples on the same terms and conditions as others, and reaffirmed the long-established principle that people, not the government, should be able to decide who they marry,” said Mary Bonauto, the GLAD Law attorney who successfully argued the marriage rights case in 2015.

“The only thing that has changed since Obergefell was decided is that people across the country have seen how marriage equality provides protection for families and children, and that protection strengthens communities, the economy and our society,” Bonauto said in a statement. “Today millions of Americans can breathe a sigh of relief for their families, current or hoped for, because all families deserve equal rights under the law.”

There are an estimated 823,000 married same-sex couples in the U.S., including 591,000 that wed after the Supreme Court decision in June 2015, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School. Nearly one in five of those married couples is parenting a child under 18.

Lower courts had dismissed Davis’ claims and most legal experts considered her bid a long shot.

“Although various commentators and activists have spent weeks claiming that a vehicle for overturning Obergefell was being considered by the justices, no informed Court observers ever thought that the Court would grant review in this case,” said Notre Dame Law professor Richard W. Garnett. “The case does not actually present, in a square and clean way, the question the coverage has suggested it does. The attention focused on this minor, factbound petition tells us more about the ongoing campaign to stir up public feeling regarding the Court than it does about live constitutional questions.”

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Davis’ petition was the first since 2015 to formally ask the court to overturn the landmark marriage decision; she was also considered one of the only Americans with legal standing to bring a direct challenge to the precedent.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes as conservative opponents of marriage rights for same-sex couples have pursued a renewed campaign to reverse legal precedent and allow each state to set its own policy.

So far in 2025, at least nine states have either introduced legislation aimed at blocking new marriage licenses for LGBTQ people or passed resolutions urging the Supreme Court to reverse Obergefell at the earliest opportunity, according to the advocacy group Lambda Legal.

In June, the Southern Baptist Convention — the nation’s largest Protestant Christian denomination — overwhelmingly voted to make “overturning of laws and court rulings, including Obergefell v. Hodges, that defy God’s design for marriage and family” a top priority.

Last month, Texas courts adopted new rules allowing judges statewide to refuse to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples if it would violate a sincerely held religious belief.

While a strong majority of Americans favor equal marriage rights, support appears to have softened in recent years, according to Gallop, which found 60% of Americans supported same-sex marriages in 2015, rising to 70% support in 2025, but that level has plateaued since 2020.

Among Republicans, support has notably dipped over the past decade, down from 55% in 2021 to 41% this year, Gallup found.