There were no noted dissents.

On Monday, the Supreme Court denied a request from county clerk turned anti-gay gadfly Kim Davis to reconsider and overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision recognizing same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry. There were no noted dissents. It is not remotely surprising that the justices turned away Davis’ petition: There probably aren’t five votes to reconsider Obergefell today—and even if there were, this zombie case would be a terrible vehicle for doing so. No one should assume that gay equality is safe at the Supreme Court. But for now, at least, the Republican-appointed justices seem to prefer indirect assaults on the rights of gay Americans over a head-on attack on their core constitutional freedoms.

For more from Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern:

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    291·
    17 hours ago

    But few know what happened next: One couple whom Davis discriminated against sued her for violating their civil rights, and a jury ordered her to pay $360,000 in damages for attorneys’ fees. She and her lawyers at the fringe-right law firm Liberty Counsel have spent years fighting that award. And that is what Davis v. Ermold is really about.

    . . . After losing several rounds of litigation over the First Amendment issue, Davis’ lawyers decided to tack on a bigger request: Suddenly, they did not merely ask for exemptions from Obergefell; they wanted the Supreme Court to overturn it altogether. They raised this claim so late in the game that the appeals court ruled that it had been forfeited. But that did not stop them from including the frontal attack on Obergefell in their appeal to SCOTUS. The request to overturn marriage equality was tacked on to the petition like an afterthought, following the main arguments about religious freedom.

    If Liberty Counsel’s primary goal was to draw attention—and, by extension, fundraising dollars—by taking on marriage equality itself, it worked: Media coverage of this case was wildly disproportionate to its (near-zero) chances of success.