Washington, 12 August 2025.- Ten years after the federal legalization of homosexual marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court could consider Kim Davis, a former Kentucky clerk imprisoned in 2015 for refusing to license a gay couple on religious grounds. A decision that could call into question a major legal acquis.
The highest court in the United States must decide, in the fall, whether it will take up the Kim Davis case, which has become a symbol of religious opposition to homosexual marriage. In 2015, this former clerk of Rowan County (Kentucky) refused to issue a marriage license to David Ermold and David Moore, citing her Christian convictions, despite the historic decision of the Supreme Court legalizing these unions at the federal level.
Davis was also sentenced to six days in prison and ordered to pay 100,000 $ moral damage and 260,000 $ legal fees to the couple. She believed that she had acted within the framework of the first amendment of the American Constitution, which protected religious freedom. His lawyers denounce « a historical error » and demand its cancellation.
The lower courts rejected her arguments, finding that, as a public officer acting on behalf of the State, she could not avail herself of this constitutional protection. The couple's lawyer, William Powell, said he was confident: « No federal judge found his arguments admissible, and the Supreme Court should not delay him. »
The outcome of this case could, for the first time since 2015, reopen the debate on the recognition of homosexual marriage in the United States, in a context where the Supreme Court, dominated by a conservative majority, has already revived tensions on civil rights.
W.A.
