Jailed clerk Kim Davis’ lawyers cite SCOTUS Dobbs ruling in push to overturn marriage equality

25 July 2024

When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with its Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling in 2022, many civil libertarians warned that other landmark right-to-privacy rulings were also in jeopardy — including Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Lawrence v. Texas (2003), Stanley v. Georgia (1969) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).

Salon's Amanda Marcotte had been warning that if Roe was overturned, access to contraception via Griswold would also be threatened. And with Dobbs, in fact, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that that the High Court should also reconsider Griswold.

With Obergefell, the High Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states — much to the chagrin of many far-right evangelical Christian nationalists.

Now, one of them, Kim Davis, has, according to Lexington, Kentucky radio station WUKY, joined forces with the group Liberty Counsel in the hope of getting Obergefell overturned.

Davis is the former Rowan County, Kentucky clerk who, in 2015, defied Obergefell and refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

WUKY's Clay Wallace reports that on Monday, July 22, Liberty Counsel filed a legal brief "which argues Davis was entitled to a religious accommodation in discriminating against same-sex couples."

Liberty Counsel is calling for Obergefell to be overturned by the High Court.

"In their brief," Wallace notes, "Liberty Counsel points to the Court's 2022's Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, as a framework and precedent to overturn marriage equality. Liberty Counsel is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Read the full WUKY article at this link.

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