Overview

• Former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and to erase roughly $360,000 in damages and fees stemming from her 2015 refusal to issue marriage licenses, arguing First Amendment protection.
• The Court has not said whether it will hear the case, which is the first formal bid since 2015 to ask the justices to reconsider nationwide marriage equality.
• Ohio Equal Rights is gathering signatures for a 2026 ballot measure to repeal the state's unenforceable same-sex marriage ban, needing 10% of the last gubernatorial turnout across at least 44 counties after the Ballot Board split marriage and anti-discrimination proposals into separate amendments.
• Political reactions intensified as Hillary Clinton urged LGBTQ+ couples to consider marrying and predicted the Court could return the issue to states, while Liberty Counsel called the 2015 ruling "egregious" and pressed for reversal.
• Legal experts cited in coverage describe a full reversal as a long shot; even without Obergefell, federal law requires interstate and federal recognition of same-sex marriages, and Davis’s filing asserts existing marriages would be grandfathered.