US Supreme Court Refuses to Consider Same-Sex Marriage Challenge

A former Kentucky county secretary called on the agency to reverse its decision, in 2015, to legalize these forms of unions. “Today, love has won again,” said the president of the Human Rights Campaign, which defends the rights of LGBT+ people.

No. The United States Supreme Court, on Monday, November 10, declined to hear an appeal against the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, which the body legalized across the country in 2015. The senior justices, who do not justify their decisions as usual when they refuse to hear a case, are highly anticipated on this issue after overturning decades of precedent in 2022, especially with the return of the right to abortion.

Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage documents to same-sex couples, asked the court, which now has a conservative majority, to overturn her decision. The refusal to hear the case confirms his order to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to gay couples who had been denied certification of their marriages. “Today love wins again,” welcomed Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, which defends the rights of LGBT+ people.

In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that marriage is not intended for heterosexual couples. The 2015 ruling then forced countries that do not recognize marriages between two people of the same sex to not only marry them but also recognize their marriages when celebrated elsewhere. 14th Constitutional Amendment “requires a state to celebrate marriage between two people of the same sex”and this is in the name of equality before the law, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his ruling.

The 2015 decision received a warm welcome from left-wing groups across the country. President Barack Obama greeted him at the time a “a big step on our journey towards equality” and one “victory for America”.