Mark Joseph Stern
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Check out this concurrence by Trump Judge Readler encouraging the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell …

‪Mike Sacks‬ ‪@mikesacks.bsky.social‬
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CA6 rejects Kim Davis's appeal from a lower court order finding she violated a gay couple's constitutional rights when she denied them a marriage license.

GWB-but-really-Clinton and Biden judges in majority. Trump judge questions Obergefell in concurrence.
https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/25a0049p-06.pdf

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March 6, 2025 at 1:34 PM

KY clerk who denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples loses another round in court
Kim Davis’ lawyer says she will continue her appeal in hopes of reaching U.S. Supreme Court

By: Sarah Ladd - March 6, 2025 5:47 pm


Then-Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis celebrates her release from the Carter County Detention Center on Sept. 8, 2015. With her are her attorney, Mat Staver, right, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, then a candidate for the Republican nomination for president. Davis was ordered to jail the previous week for contempt of court after refusing a federal judge’s order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. (Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a request from former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to strike down a federal jury’s judgment against her, which came with a $100,000 price tag. ... The opinion came down Thursday, a little more than a month after a three-judge panel heard oral arguments on the matter. ... Senior Judge Helene N. White, appointed by President George W. Bush, delivered the opinion. Judge Andre B. Mathis, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, concurred. Judge Chad A. Readler, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, concurred in part.

Davis’ lawyer has argued that when she refused to issue a marriage license to same-sex couple David Ermold and David Moore a decade ago, she was protected by the First Amendment, which promises freedom of speech, religion and the press. ... The judges did not agree, writing in their Thursday opinion that “Davis cannot raise a Free Exercise Clause defense because she is being held liable for state action, which the First Amendment does not protect.” ... The judges furthermore called Davis’ actions while a county clerk a “quintessential state action.” ... “The First Amendment shields Davis where she ‘functioned as a private citizen,’ but not where she “engaged in state action,’” the opinion states.

Davis’ lawyer, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver, also argued the $100,000 Davis was ordered to pay was arbitrary because one could not quantify emotional damage. The judges rejected that, pointing to case law as a basis and citing testimony from the men about feeling frightened and humiliated. ... Staver also argued that Ermold and Moore could have gotten their license elsewhere, which the judges said “only compounded the stigma.”

Staver previously told the Lantern that his team’s goal is for the appeal to reach the U.S. Supreme Court and that, should the appeals panel rule against him, he would appeal to the higher court. ... The case would then provide the justices an opportunity to re-evaluate Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that guaranteed same-sex couples marriage rights, on the same grounds that the court in 2022 used to overturn the federal right to abortion, Staver said.

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Read the ruling

https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/25a0049p-06.pdf