CINCINNATI — In a release titled "The Next Supreme Court Blockbuster," the conservative Liberty Counsel announced a recent filing in Cincinnati's Sixth District could overturn a judgment made against former Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis and, eventually, lead to the Supreme Court overturning federal protections for LGBTQ Marriage established with the landmark Obergefell V. Hodges ruling.
A court found Davis liable for attorney fees and damages to a same-sex couple she'd denied a marriage license in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, but Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver indicated in the release that the now-conservative Supreme Court would overrule Obergefell.
"Kim Davis deserves justice in this case since she was entitled to religious accommodation from issuing marriage licenses under her name and authority," Staver wrote. "This case has the potential to overturn the wrongly decided Obergefell v. Hodges and extend the same religious freedom protections beyond Kentucky to the entire nation."
In the brief, Liberty Counsel argues Obergefell was "egregiously wrong" and "deeply damaging," and cites the conservative majority's ruling in the recent Dobbs case overturning Roe V. Wade abortion protections as an example of legal standing for throwing out protections for same-sex marriage.
The brief quotes Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his Dobbs opinion saying the appeal "demonstrates the need to 'reconsider all of th[e] Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold [v. Connecticut], Lawrence [v. Texas], and Obergefell.'"
Kentucky Fairness Campaign Director Chris Hartman said the Obergefell ruling has been a positive for the country over nearly a decade.
"The only thing that has happened since Obergefell became the law of the land is that LGBTQ couples have been happily married," he said.
Hartman said he didn't expect Davis's appeal to be the case to overturn same-sex marriage protections, but he does expect it to be the first of many challenges specifically designed to get the question in front of the conservative majority court.
"LGBTQ Americans have a constitutional right to marriage in America," he said. "No matter your religious beliefs, you cannot subvert the basic fundamental and constitutional rights of LGBTQ Americans."
WCPO reached out to Liberty Counsel for additional comment but did not hear back.
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