Conservative Christians are trying to use Kim Davis’s case to overturn marriage equality

Liberty Counsel, a far-right legal group, has filed a brief on behalf of Kim Davis, a former county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, which they say may lead to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning marriage equality.

Kim Davis is a former clerk in Rowan County in Kentucky, who was sued and then jailed for contempt of court after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, claiming it violated her Christian beliefs.

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“Kim Davis deserves justice in this case since she was entitled to a religious accommodation from issuing marriage licenses under her name and authority,” Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a press release on Tuesday.

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“This case has the potential to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and extend the same religious freedom protections beyond Kentucky to the entire nation.”

Davis went to jail for five days in 2018 for contempt for refusing to comply with a court order. Earlier this year, she was ordered to pay $260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one of the same-sex couples that she discriminated against. She is now appealing that ruling.

In 2023, Davis was told that she must pay the same couple, David Ermold and David Moore, $100,000 in damages for violating their constitutional rights.

Chris Hartman, the director of Kentucky’s Fairness Campaign, called their latest filing “a sad and desperate” in a statement to the The Kentucky Lantern.

“The threat of anti-LGBTQ hate groups … is real, however, and it comes as no surprise that they are seeking to overturn LGBTQ marriage in America. With an arch-conservative Supreme Court that’s already upended half a century of abortion rights, anything is unfortunately possible,” he continued. 

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas opened the door to marriage equality being overturned in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights. In his concurring opinion, he wrote that the same logic that was used to overturn abortion may be used to overturn same-sex marriage and access to birth control.

The court documents filed by Liberty Counsel reference this, saying, “Obergefell was wrong when it was decided and it is wrong today because it was based entirely on the legal fiction of substantive due process, which lacks any basis in the Constitution.”

“We want to overturn the jury verdict because there is no evidence to support it, to grant religious accommodation for Kim Davis and to overturn the 2015 case of Obergefell v. Hodges.”

“Kim Davis deserves justice in this case since she was entitled to a religious accommodation from issuing marriage licenses under her name and authority. This case has the potential to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and extend the same religious freedom protections beyond Kentucky to the entire nation,” Staver stated in the press relief.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misidentified Clarence Thomas’s position and identified him as the chief justice. We regret the error.

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