Supreme Court weighs longshot appeal to overturn decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON AP A call to overturn the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide is on the agenda Friday for the justices closed-door conference Related Articles Dozens of Denver flights canceled as DIA s air traffic controllers carry on without pay Currently in History November first woman elected to Congress Musk could become history s first trillionaire as Tesla shareholders approve giant pay package Trump administration speeds up new rules that would make it easier to charge specific protesters Supreme Court lets Trump block transgender and nonbinary people from choosing passport sex markers Among the new cases the justices are expected to consider is a longshot appeal from Kim Davis the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the court s ruling in Obergefell v Hodges Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower court order for her to pay in damages and attorney s fees to a couple whom she denied a marriage license The justices could say as early as Monday what they ll do In urging the court to take up her affair Davis lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling Thomas was one of four dissenting justices in Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other dissenters who also remain on the court Roberts has been silent on the subject since he wrote a dissenting opinion in the situation Alito has continued to criticize the decision but revealed just now he was not advocating that it be overturned Justice Amy Coney Barrett who was not on the court in has explained there are times when the court should correct mistakes and overturn decisions as it did in the scenario that ended a constitutional right to abortion But Barrett has suggested lately that same-sex marriage might be in a different category than abortion because people have relied on the decision when they married and had children Davis drew national attention to eastern Kentucky s Rowan County when she turned away same-sex couples saying her faith prevented her from complying with the high court ruling She defied court orders to issue the licenses until a federal judge jailed her for contempt of court in September She was published after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form The Kentucky Legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses Davis lost a reelection bid in