Ex-Kentucky clerk Kim Davis asks Supreme Court to overturn same-sex marriage ruling: ‘Legal fiction’ 

Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who violated the rights of a gay couple, has petitioned the Supreme Court to revisit its landmark decision on same-sex marriage – slamming the ruling as a “legal fiction.”  

Davis, 59, served five days in jail in 2015 after she refused to issue a marriage license to gay couple David Ermold and David Moore shortly after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in the Obergefell v. Hodges case. 

The former Rowan County, Ky., clerk was subsequently ordered to pay a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages and $260,000 in attorneys’ fees to the married couple. 

She asked the high court – in a 90-page filing last month – to review a lower court’s 2022 finding that she violated Ermold and Moore’s constitutional right to marry and revisit its decision in the same-sex marriage case. 

“If ever a case deserved review, the first individual who was thrown in jail post-Obergefell for seeking accommodation for her religious beliefs should be it,” Liberty Counsel, the nonprofit law firm representing Davis, wrote in the petition. 

“Davis was jailed, haled before a jury, and now faces crippling monetary damages based on nothing more than purported emotional distress,” the filing continued, arguing that Davis was protected by her First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and religion in denying the marriage licences. 

The petition also asks the justices to consider “whether Obergefell v. Hodges … and the legal fiction of substantive due process, should be overturned.” 

“Kim Davis’ case underscores why the US Supreme Court should overturn the wrongly decided Obergefell v. Hodges opinion because it threatens the religious liberty of Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman,” Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement.

“Obergefell cannot just push the First Amendment aside to punish individuals for their beliefs about marriage,” Staver added. “The First Amendment precludes making the choice between your faith and your livelihood.”

“The High Court now has the opportunity to finally overturn this egregious opinion from 2015.”

William Powell, an attorney for Ermold and Moore, told The Post that he is “confident” the Supreme Court won’t take up Davis’ case.  

“We are confident the Supreme Court, like the court of appeals, will conclude that Davis’s arguments do not merit further attention,” Powell, who serves as senior counsel at Georgetown University’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, said in a statement. 

“Marriage equality is settled law,” he added. 

The Supreme Court previously denied a 2020 petition from Davis to consider her appeal.