# Kim Davis asks Supreme Court to overturn gay marriage ruling of 2015 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 11, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943 "2025-08-11T21:51:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/341 "2025-11-15T00:52:17Z")
> [@What could the Harris campaign have done differently?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-the-harris-campaign-have-done-differently/1009798/325): > > The Democrats have followed the strategy of championing oppressed minorities, focusing on ever tinier and more aberrant fringe groups, to the point of diminishing returns. First African-Americans, then women, then gays, and now various flavors of non-binaries. I’m not sure there’s anywhere left to go except for maybe incest practitioners. The aberrant fringe groups should be happy for what they have I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/342 "2025-11-15T00:57:23Z")
No, nobody deserves oppression and I apologize for clumsily implying that. I’m struggling today to find the right words to express what I intended to say. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/343 "2025-11-15T02:02:49Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I’m presuming you would say “no”, which begs the question of just how far the boundaries of “institutional entity” extend. Some of those boundaries are enshrined by law…as an employer, you’re free to discriminate against gay people (or women, or Latinos, or Jews) to your heart’s content, as long as your company has 14 or fewer employees. ---
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/344 "2025-11-15T02:05:03Z")
They are hoping that Trump makes it possible for any circumstance. That is THE Republican Dream. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/345 "2025-11-15T02:47:50Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Can a private landlord refuse to rent to married gays? I’m presuming you would say “no” You may not be able to understand this, but that issue is sufficiently nuanced the only real answer is “it depends.” For example, if the landlord is truly private and is not getting any tax benefits or other government-based benefits from renting to the public, my answer would be “yes.” I don’t know if there are that many landlords whom that criterion would fit, but I suppose there are some. That this is not the way the US courts have interpreted the law, as I understand it, is not something I agree with. Personally, I would rather not spend my money with bigots, which includes makers of wedding cakes. > [@Lumpy](#): > > unwelcome truths you bitterly hate You don’t know what I hate and what I don’t hate, so fuck off, troll. Don’t assume you know everything I think because I am openly gay. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/346 "2025-11-15T04:27:47Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Can a private landlord refuse to rent to married gays? Depends on the circumstances. There are laws about these sorts of things, and [in general, relevant antidiscrimination legislation comes down to:](https://www.findlaw.com/lgbtq-law/housing-discrimination-protections-for-lgbtq-renters.html) you can’t dictate to people whom they choose to rent space to in their own private residence, and some other private arrangements, but you can apply nondiscrimination laws to their other rental properties. > [@](#): > > [FHA housing discrimination](https://www.findlaw.com/realestate/landlord-tenant-law/tenants-and-fair-housing.html) protection applies to all public housing but exempts some private properties: > > - Owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer rental units > > - Single-family homes that are rented without the use of advertising or a real estate broker (unless the landlord owns more than three homes) > > - Housing operated by religious organizations or private clubs that limit occupancy to their own members > [@Lumpy](#): > > Yeah, like it points out unwelcome truths you bitterly hate. Your post didn’t actually contain much in the way of “truths”, welcome or unwelcome. Mostly, it was a bunch of heavily biased musings about the innate nature of “rights”: > [@Lumpy](#): > > The funny thing about rights is that as much as some insist that they are inherent, 99+% of what we use the word for is the demand that _others_ **respect** those rights. IOW, we’re demanding concessions from others as our due. I mean, that is some noticeably well-poisoning spin on the question of what it means to advocate for “rights”, specifically gay rights. The implied skepticism in your _“demanding concessions”_ language clearly comes across as suggesting that _“others_” (i.e., not-gay people) are by default justified in choosing for themselves whether or not to treat gays equally before the law. And that when we gay-rights supporters (whether gay, as in @Roderick_Femm’s case, or straight, as in mine) opine that the “others” should **have** to recognize gay rights in practice by legislative fiat, we are bumptiously demanding that they “concede” something that they’re morally entitled to refuse if they want to. That is… quite a take, and not-so-subtly defends homophobic bigotry as a valid position in rights discourse (even if you personally don’t support homophobic bigotry on general ethical grounds). I very much doubt that you would have spontaneously chosen to similarly describe, for example, Second Amendment supporters as _“demanding concessions from others as [their] due”_ when they advocate for relaxation of this or that gun ownership regulation to “respect” their gun ownership “rights”. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/347 "2025-11-15T16:30:44Z")
Thank you, @Kimstu, for your more measured response. Much more effective. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/348 "2025-11-15T17:02:06Z")
We talk about how being forced to respect the rights of others could be perceived as causing harm to bigots, when really it doesn’t. Let us not forget that a significant part of our population actively desires to inflict cruelty on those others. Despite being a bleeding heart liberal, I guess I can understand the catharsis of having someone to look down upon. I’ll never understand the _need_ to have a categorized group to punch down and hate. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/349 "2025-11-15T17:14:29Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Much more effective. Much more effective at convincing others, perhaps, but not this particular ignorant fuckwad. > [@Lumpy](#): > > IOW to just about any damn thing gays resent suffering prejudice. Yeah, those uppity gays resenting prejudice. Constantly going on and on about being treated as second class citizens. How dare they! Also: fuck off, asshole. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/350 "2025-11-15T19:30:22Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > We talk about how being forced to respect the rights of others could be perceived as causing harm to bigots, when really it doesn’t. Let us not forget that a significant part of our population actively desires to inflict cruelty on those others. Well said. HOW does this cause harm? Snowflakes, everyone of them. Well really just Flakes. You’re afraid of gay people? I don’t even need to talk to Freud There is a large group of low IQ folks (as Donald Trump would say) actively trying to hurt our country. That’s all true. As a straight white married male, they are trying to hurt my friends. I won’t stand for that. DJT is also trying to take the entire economy down with his sinking boat. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/351 "2025-11-15T19:51:19Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > No, nobody deserves oppression and I apologize for clumsily implying that. I’m struggling today to find the right words to express what I intended to say. If you’re struggling to find a way to express your ideas without sounding like an asshole, consider the possibility that maybe you’re just an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/352 "2025-11-15T20:02:20Z")
Getting back on topic, I think another legal avenue that conservatives might try to overturn gay marriage would be to deliberately stage a marriage that is clearly incompatible or illegal - such as incestual marriage or polyamorous marriage - have it be rejected by lower courts, and then bring it to SCOTUS to force SCOTUS to formally define what exactly marriage can and cannot be. Their hope would be that SCOTUS would say something like, “Marriage is between one man and one woman.” ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/353 "2025-11-15T20:10:30Z")
Eh, this just gives all the tiers of courts one of their favorite ways out: the “narrow” ruling. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/354 "2025-11-15T23:27:20Z")
I lost a lot of respect for a member of my church 10 years ago when he used the slippery slope argument after _Obergefell_. Gay marriage; what’s next, marrying your dog? No, marriage between two consenting human partners isn’t even the same damn thing. I wonder if he still feels the same way now. He and I are still friends, and I have to allow for the possibility of character development on his part. God knows _I_ used to be anti-gay when I was in high school, out of pure ignorance. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2025, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/355 "2025-11-15T23:35:23Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > I lost a lot of respect for a member of my church 10 years ago when he used the slippery slope argument after _Obergefell_. Gay marriage; what’s next, marrying your dog? “You’re allowed to go to church? What’s next, ritual sacrifice of children?!” ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2025, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/356 "2025-11-16T00:18:51Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Getting back on topic I’m not clear how a discussion of same-sex marriage as a right that LGBTQ people ask to be recognized is off-topic for a thread about the Obergefell case? More so than a post strategizing for conservatives on how they might actually overturn that decision, that is. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2025, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/357 "2025-11-16T03:41:30Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > “You’re allowed to go to church? What’s next, ritual sacrifice of children?!” Good one! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943/358 "2026-06-11T19:08:06Z")
This is encouraging, all in all: > **[The campaign to overrule Obergefell](https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/the-campaign-to-overrule-obergefell/)** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kim-davis-asks-supreme-court-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ruling-of-2015/1021943.md?page=17)