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Supreme Court Weighs Whether to Hear Kim Davis Appeal Testing Immunity, Pressing Obergefell Revisit

The petition couples narrow questions on damages with a bid to revisit Obergefell.

FILE - Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis makes a statement to the media at the front door of the Rowan County Judicial Center in Morehead, Ky. Sept. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
A crowd celebrates outside of the Supreme Court in Washington after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the U.S on June 26 2015.
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 15: Joseph Fons holding a Pride Flag, walks back and forth in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building after the court ruled that LGBTQ people can not be disciplined or fired based on their sexual orientation June 15, 2020 in Washington, DC. With Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch joining the Democratic appointees, the court ruled 6-3 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Overview

  • The justices meet in private on November 7 to decide whether to grant certiorari in Davis’s case.
  • Davis, a former Rowan County clerk, refused marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2015, leading to lawsuits and jury awards for emotional distress to David Moore and David Ermold.
  • The Sixth Circuit rejected Davis’s claims of immunity from personal liability, and she now asks the Supreme Court to review that outcome while urging reconsideration of Obergefell v. Hodges.
  • Legal advocates describe the dispute as focused on qualified immunity and emotional-distress damages, and note the Court could decline review or limit any grant to those narrow issues.
  • If review is denied, lower-court rulings stand; if granted, briefing and arguments would follow with a likely decision by next summer, as debates continue over the Respect for Marriage Act’s limits on requiring states to issue licenses.