Supreme Court denies appeal to overturn same-sex marriage

Supreme Court denies appeal to overturn same-sex marriage

The US Supreme Court said it will not revisit its landmark 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage across the country.

FOX 2 - A major victory for same-sex marriage on Monday.

The United States Supreme Court did not agree to hear a challenge to the 10-year-old ruling that legalized same-sex marriage. 

What they're saying:

"I’m very happy. I think the Supreme Court did the right thing," said Jay Kaplan from the ACLU of Michigan.

Kaplan, an attorney from the ACLU, was happy about SCOTUS not hearing the case of Kim Davis versus David Ermold - a case out of Kentucky.

Davis, a clerk, denied a marriage license to the same-sex couple because of her religious beliefs.

"They're entitled to their religious beliefs but we're talking about legal marriage," Kaplan said. "And we have, in our country, we let people get legally married and we provide benefits and protections under the law associated with that.

The backstory:

According to the Associated Press, Davis attempted to get the Supreme Court to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and lawyer's fees to a couple denied a marriage license.

Davis' attorneys invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.

The AP reported that Thomas was among four dissenting justices in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other dissenters who are on the court today.

According to the AP, Davis ignored court orders to issue the marriage licenses until a federal judge jailed her for contempt of court in September 2015.

What's next:

Some like Kaplan worry that, with six of the nine US Supreme Court justices leaning conservative, more challenges could be on the way.

FOX 2: "You’re not really worried about a court overturning the right for gay people to get married?"

"I think we should be," he said. "I think we should be somewhere down the line given this court."

Kaplan referenced the overturning of Roe versus Wade - where the Supreme Court ruled there’s no Federal right to an abortion, but states can allow abortions or not.

Dig deeper:

In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. The 5-4 decision found that state bans on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses.

The case consolidated multiple lawsuits challenging state bans on same-sex marriage, with James Obergefell, an Ohio resident, as the lead plaintiff. The ruling required all 50 states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognize valid same-sex marriages performed in other states.