U.S. Supreme Court refuses to reconsider ruling legalizing same-sex marriage

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis at a rally outside the detention center. Photo: Wright/Getty Images

On November 10, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a petition from former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis to review the landmark 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, The Christian Post reported.

Davis had asked the Court to overturn the ruling that prohibited individual states from restricting the registration of same-sex unions. The Supreme Court denied the petition for a "writ of certiorari" without comment, leaving in place the lower court decisions.

Kim Davis became widely known in 2015 when, serving as a county clerk, she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, citing her religious beliefs. For defying a court order, she was arrested and spent several days in jail.

Later, she was sued by several same-sex couples to whom she had denied marriage licenses. In 2023, a court ordered Davis to pay over $260,000 in legal fees and damages.

Mat Staver, head of the Liberty Counsel legal organization representing Davis, said the Supreme Court’s decision “has left stand a decision to strip a government defendant of their immunity and any personal First Amendment defense for their religious expression.” According to him, lawyers will continue to seek the reversal of the Obergefell v. Hodges precedent, which they regard as “egregiously wrong from the start.”

In 2022, the U.S. Congress, then controlled by Democrats, codified the Supreme Court’s decision by passing a federal act that permanently legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited transgender people from changing their gender markers in passports.

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