US Supreme Court Upholds Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Despite Conservative Majority

Same-Sex Marriage Legalization Upheld Despite Overturning of Abortion Rights

The United States Supreme Court has upheld its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

A protester is waving a rainbow flag in front of the United States Supreme Court in Washington D.C. Photo by Bloomberg

On November 10 (local time), the Supreme Court rejected a request to revisit the 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized the right to same-sex marriage.

The justices maintained the lower court's decision without additional comment, effectively reaffirming the validity of the existing precedent.

This case began when Kim Davis, a court clerk in Kentucky, refused to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples on religious grounds. Despite a court order, she did not comply and was jailed for five days in September 2015 on contempt of court charges. She was also ordered to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney fees to the affected couples. Davis appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling, but her appeal was ultimately denied.

This latest decision is noteworthy because the precedent legalizing same-sex marriage remains intact, even though six out of nine Supreme Court justices are considered conservative. In particular, concerns were raised in 2022 that the same-sex marriage precedent could be threatened after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which had allowed abortions up to six months of pregnancy. At that time, Justice Clarence Thomas sparked controversy by stating in a concurring opinion that other social precedents, including same-sex marriage, should also be reconsidered.

Same-sex marriage became legal in the United States in June 2015, when the Supreme Court ruled that state-level bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.

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