The Supreme Court is set to meet on November 7 to decide whether it will take up a case that could reopen the national debate over same-sex marriage. The petition comes from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who famously refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

After that decision, Kentucky’s governor ordered all county clerks to issue licenses to same-sex couples. Instead, Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses altogether, citing her religious opposition to same-sex marriage. Two men, David Moore and David Ermold, sued Davis, arguing that she violated their constitutional rights by denying them a license.

A federal judge ordered Davis to comply with the law, but she continued to refuse. Eventually, the Kentucky legislature changed the law to remove clerks’ names from marriage licenses, allowing Davis’s office to resume issuing them. In 2023, a jury awarded Moore and Ermold $50,000 each in damages.

Davis appealed the verdict, arguing that she acted as a private citizen guided by her religious beliefs, not as a government official enforcing state policy. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that claim earlier this year, ruling that she was acting in her official capacity and therefore was not protected by the First Amendment in this context.

In July 2025, Davis asked the Supreme Court to take her case and overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, claiming that the 2015 ruling was constitutionally unsound and that it forced her to choose between her faith and her job.

The Supreme Court will now decide whether to hear the case. It takes four justices to agree to grant review, but the justices typically only move forward if at least five appear willing to reconsider the earlier precedent.