The Supreme Court of the United States has rejected this Monday the nationwide lawsuit, approved in 2015 after a historic ruling (the case Obergefell v. Hodges). The high court, which has a six-to-three conservative majority, has dismissed the appeal of Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who was sued by a gay couple after refusing to arrange their marriage. . Although he has not given details about his decision, at least four of the judges who form it have had to oppose the taking into consideration of Davis’s lawsuit.
For Jim Obergefell, whose lawsuit led to national approval of marriage equality in the United States, Davis’ case is personal. He stated that he felt “disgusted” that there were fellow citizens who worked against the well-being and happiness of other people, using religious freedom as an excuse. “This modern version of religious freedom – this belief that one’s personal religion is above all else – is a distortion and perversion of what our founders intended,” he said. Furthermore, Obergefell noted that Davis’s refusal to follow the law was symptomatic of a broader problem: that of public officials who put their private faith before civic duty. “[Davis] “He swore an oath to serve all people, yet he has used his public office to persecute others.”
Three years ago, a federal judge, David Bunning, already rejected Davis’s arguments, Reuters recalls: “She cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while carrying out her duties as an elected official.”
Despite the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that gave legal protection to equal marriage in all US states, Davis argued that this norm . The former official had already litigated in lower instances, which had not only rejected her claims, but also (she spent five days in prison and has been fined more than 300,000 euros). Furthermore, five years ago, the Supreme Court already rejected another appeal by Davis.
The former official, who worked at the Kentucky Registry, sought in the Supreme Court not only to appeal her convictions, but also to amend the ruling in the Obergefell case. Intentions that for the legal head of Glaad (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), Josh Rovenger, had little chance of succeeding: “It would be truly anomalous for the Supreme Court, with such limited facts, to reexamine Obergefell,” he noted in The Advocate last week
In 2022, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court, which has three judges appointed by Trump, revoked national protection for abortion, leaving the legislation in the hands of the States. Then, the Supreme Court annulled the historic ruling that protected abortion throughout the United States (Roe v. Wade 1973). After that decision, numerous states were in the hands of conservatives. Now, it was feared that the same would happen.
After the annulment of the protection of the right to abortion, consolidated more than half a century ago, the ultra-conservative factions in the United States hoped that the Supreme Court would not only consider Davis’ case, but would end up annulling national protection for equal marriage, opening the door to state vetoes.
This year, 616 anti-LGTBIQ+ state bills have been presented (from Idaho to Montana, through Arkansas, Texas or Iowa), according to the count carried out by the American Civil Rights Union (ACLU). Of them, 71 have been consolidated as law, while 248 have been rejected and 285 are still in parliamentary process. Although many of them are rejected, the mere proposals fuel LGBTIphobia, according to the organizations in defense of the group.
For his part, Davis’ lawyer, Mathew Staver, has assured that Liberty Counsel, an organization to which he belongs and which promotes “evangelical Christian values”, will continue working to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges, a ruling that he describes as “wrong from the beginning.” “It is not a question of if it will happen, but of when the Supreme Court will overturn Obergefell,” he said in a statement.
