On November 10, 2025, the Supreme court declined to revisit their 2015 decision of legalizing gay marriage and the issuing of licenses for it in all states. This decision came to a head after a former Kentucky based clerk, Kim Davis, refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple in her town, something explicitly made illegal as part of the Obergefell v. Hodge case (the previously mentioned 2015 decision).

After the court’s decision in 2015, Davis, responsible for issuing such licenses, gained national attention for this refusal on account of her religious beliefs to couple David Moore and David Ermold. The couple then filed a lawsuit against Davis, claiming that she violated their constitutional rights that were established as a part of Obergefell v. Hodge in 2015. This lawsuit awarded both Moore and Ermhold $50,000. 

The petition asked the Court to reverse both a previous order that required Davis to pay $300,000 to a gay couple whom she denied a marriage license, and to overturn the 2015 decision that made it legal for such licenses to be issued freely. Davis made the appeal that distributing same-sex marriage licenses violated her constitutional right to freedom of religion. However, this was quickly proven irrelevant by the courts because as a clerk, she was acting on behalf of the government and had to uphold the word of the Supreme Court as part of her job. 

Many legal experts predicted that their denial to revisit the decision would inevitably take place, due to the fact that almost half of the judges would have to vote to revisit this protection for gay couples in order for them to continue and, hypothetically, overturn it. Even so, the possibility of this critical right being taken away spread panic throughout the LGBTQIA+ community like wildfire. With the Trump administration’s targeted legislation and recent gutting of funding towards queer individuals and organizations, many worried their human rights were at risk in light of the decision. Since the 2015 deliberation, over 800,000 gay couples nationwide have married, and over 300,000 children are being raised by those same couples. Overturning this historic ruling could have devastating effects on the couples and their families. The Supreme Court’s decision in November to leave same-sex marriage decisions as they are promotes equal rights and preserves legislation that protects many individuals in our country.