The Supreme Court has been formally asked to revisit its ruling on same-sex marriage after a former Kentucky county clerk filed a petition arguing that the decision in Obergefell v Hodges was “egregiously wrong.”
The former clerk, Kim Davis, was jailed for six days in 2015 after she refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple on religious grounds.
“If ever there was a case of exceptional importance, the first individual in the Republic’s history who was jailed for following her religious convictions regarding the historic definition of marriage, this should be it,” the petition reads. “Nevertheless, the lower court held that the First Amendment provides no shield for Davis as an individual because she was originally sued as a state actor and allegedly remained a state actor—even to this day, long after she left office, and even though she was stripped of all government immunity.”
In recent months, several lawmakers have urged the Supreme Court to revisit same-sex marriage, arguing that the issue should be given to the states.
Oklahoma Republican lawmakers Senator Dusty Deevers and Representative Jim Olsen filed a resolution on the matter, which said the ruling “conflicts with the original public meaning of the United States Constitution, the principles upon which the United States is established, and the deeply rooted history and tradition of the United States regarding the nature of marriage and state power.”
Iowa State Senator Sandy Salmon (R) also filed a resolution on the subject. It read, “Since court rulings are not laws and only legislatures selected by the people may pass laws, Obergefell is an illegitimate overreach.”
Similar efforts to overturn Obergefell have been introduced in Michigan, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
