The Supreme Court has an opportunity to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that legalized same-sex marriages. Kim Davis has filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to overturn the case. Davis formerly served as a Kentucky county clerk and refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple after the 2015 Obergefell decision. She spent six days in jail and was ordered to pay $100,000 for emotional damages and $260,000 in attorney fees after the couple sued. Davis argued that she should be able to use the First Amendment as a defense when sued in her individual capacity. She also argued that the Obergefell decision was wrongly decided. Davis relied on the concurring opinion of Justice Clarence Thomas in Dobbs v. Jackson. In that opinion, Thomas urged the court to review Obergefell because the case was based on the flawed legal doctrine of substantive due process. The high court will return in October, and at least four justices must agree to hear Davis’s case.

Some legal scholars are skeptical that the Supreme Court would rule directly on Obergefell. “There is no world in which the court takes the case as a straight gay marriage case,” said Sarah Isgur, an ABC News legal analyst. However, Liberty Counsel lawyer Mathew Staver hopes the court will recognize the dilemma Davis faced: “If ever there was a case of exceptional importance, the first individual in the Republic’s history who was jailed for following her religious convictions regarding the historic definition of marriage, this should be it.”