On Monday, November 10th, 2025, the United States Supreme Court rejected the opportunity to overturn the national constitutional right of same-sex marriage, after multiple prominent political figures caused the topic to resurface.
Obergefell v. Hodges was a well known case in 2015 that regarded the legality of same-sex marriages. Jim Obergefell, along with numerous others, sued for the recognition of their marriages, which were considered legal in the states where they were married, but illegal in others. Denying a marriage in some states while recognizing it in others impedes many rights and privileges, including adoption, property, and parental rights. The Supreme Court declared that “states must allow and recognize same-sex marriages under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Along with the majority of the court, Justice Kennedy pronounced that “the fundamental right to marry cannot be limited to heterosexual couples.”
Three years ago, the 6-3 conservative majority court overturned the 1979 Roe v. Wade court decision, bringing an end to the constitutional right to have an abortion, leaving it up to the states. Since then, and especially with President Trump being re-elected, there has been fear and talk about overturning Obergefell v. Hodges.
Since 2015, the Supreme Court has become much more conservative and the key swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, in the original Obergefell v. Hodges case, since then, has been replaced by very conservative, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. With that, the strong liberal, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also involved in the case, has been replaced by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett after Ginsburg passed in 2020.
Kennedy spoke very highly of marriage, believing it is an expression of “the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family.” In 2015, on the day of Obergefell v. Hodges, many same-sex couples and allies celebrated throughout the country. The White House was lit up with rainbow lights to celebrate this time in national history. On the other hand, there were many conservatives that saw it as a betrayal and disloyalty to their religion, criticizing the government on their decision.
Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk, has been refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, even after the court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges allowed them to marry. Currently, Davis has a lower court order against her that requires her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney fees to a couple whom she denied a marriage license, and she has been attempting to appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling. Mat Staver, who is the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, which is the legal group that represented Davis, made a statement on the subject. He said that Davis would now be faced “crippling monetary damages based on nothing more than purported hurt feelings”, which he feels is unfair towards her. Staver also said how “like the abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, Obergefell was egregiously wrong from the start. We will continue to work to overturn Obergefell. It is not a matter of if, but when the Supreme Court will overturn Obergefell.”
Justice Clarence Thomas has been another outspoken voice on the legality of same-sex marriage. Out of the nine justices, he alone has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling. Back in 2015, Thomas was one of the four dissenting justices on this topic, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who both still remain on the court today. Roberts has been silent on the topic, and Alito recently made a statement saying that he was not advocating for the decision to be overturned, despite being openly critical about it over the past decade.
According to CNN, the Supreme Court has yet to release a statement explaining their reasoning behind not overturning the right to same-sex marriage. However, this doesn’t diminish the excitement from the people. The President of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson, believes that on November 10th, “love won again.”
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/10/politics/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage-obergefell-kim-davis
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/us/politics/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage.html
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/supreme-court-case-library/obergefell-v-hodges
