August 12, 2025 12:44 PM UTC

Thank Heaven For Amendment J, Colorado

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• by: Colorado Pols

As ABC News reported yesterday, another U.S. Supreme Court precedent that millions of Americans have considered to be settled law for over a decade could once again be upended, as the court considers whether to consider a challenge to the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision making marriage equality for same-sex couples the law of the land:

Ten years after the Supreme Court extended marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide, the justices this fall will consider for the first time whether to take up a case that explicitly asks them to overturn that decision.

Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for six days in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple on religious grounds, is appealing a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages plus $260,000 for attorneys fees.

In a petition for writ of certiorari filed last month, Davis argues First Amendment protection for free exercise of religion immunizes her from personal liability for the denial of marriage licenses.

Because former Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis has been sanctioned for her refusal to carry out her lawful responsibilities, she may have standing to take her case all the way–and in today’s conservative 6-3 majority Supreme Court, the prospects that Obergefell could suffer the same fate as Roe v. Wade are unfortunately favorable. Justice Clarence Thomas has suggested that Obergefell may be the next decision to be overturned under the rightward-shifted Court’s revised interpretation of the Constitution.

Protecting Colorado from the potential fickleness of today’s federal judiciary on the subject of marriage equality is Amendment J, the constitutional ballot measure passed last November with over 65% of the vote repealing our state’s inactivated ban on same-sex marriage, in order to ensure that this exact scenario does not result in the deprivation of marriage rights to thousands of Colorado residents. Like the repeal of Roe, the repeal of Obergefell could become another case of the religious right achieving a long-sought political goal at the expense of long-term political backlash for elected Republicans–especially in blue states like ours.

For those who have spent their careers fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, and in Colorado this movement has overall been very successful, it’s a hard lesson that the fight never really ends.