The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether to hear Kim Davis’s petition in Davis v. Ermold during its private conference on November 7, 2025, a move that could test the durability of Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). Davis, the former Rowan County, Kentucky clerk jailed in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, asks the Court to shield her from personal liability and to reconsider Obergefell, arguing her actions were protected by the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause. A federal jury awarded plaintiffs David Ermold and David Moore $100,000 in 2023, after lower courts found Davis violated their constitutional rights and rejected her defenses.
Davis’s petition cites the Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to argue that Obergefell was wrongly decided, while respondents urge the justices to leave intact rulings that public officials cannot deny constitutional rights based on personal beliefs. Even if the justices decline to revisit nationwide marriage equality, the case could clarify when government employees face damages for actions taken under claimed religious objections.
