Washington– A call to the heart of the teacher supreme court Codification of the decision Gay marriage Nationwide is on Friday’s agenda for the judges’ closed conference.
Among the new issues the judges are expected to consider is a long-standing appeal Kim Davisa former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.
Davis was trying to persuade the court to overturn a lower court’s order to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple who were denied a marriage license.
The justices could say as early as Monday what they will do.
In urging the court to consider her case, Davis’ lawyers repeatedly cited the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone of the nine justices called for the same-sex marriage ruling to be erased.
Thomas was one of four justices to dissent in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other two dissenters who also remain on the court.
Roberts has been silent on the matter since writing a dissenting opinion in the case. Alito has continued to criticize the decision, but recently said he was not calling for it to be overturned.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court in 2015, said there are times when the court must correct errors and overturn decisions, as it did in a 2022 case that ended the constitutional right to abortion.
But Barrett recently pointed out that gay marriage may be in a different category than abortion because people rely on the decision when they get married and have children.
Davis brought national attention to Rowan County in eastern Kentucky when it rejected same-sex couples, saying her faith prevented her from complying with the Supreme Court ruling. She defied court orders to issue licenses until a federal judge imprisoned her for contempt of court in September 2015.
She was released after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form. The Kentucky legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.
Davis lost his re-election bid in 2018.