The Supreme Court rejected Monday an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who cited her religious beliefs in refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples even after the high court's ruling striking down bans across the country.
Following the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in 2015, Davis was sued by gay couples to whom she denied marriage licenses. Although the Supreme Court unanimously rejected her appeal, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas issued a statement joined by Justice Samuel Alito calling Davis a "victim" of the decision—suggesting that Obergefell now joins Roe and the ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the conservative justices’ chopping block.
"Davis may have been one of the first victims of this Court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefell decision, but she will not be the last," Thomas wrote. "Due to Obergefell, those with sincerely held religious beliefs concerning marriage will find it increasingly difficult to participate in society without running afoul of Obergefell and its effect on other antidiscrimination laws."
In other words, based on the ruling, Christians will be increasingly persecuted because they can't openly discriminate against same-sex couples—including those serving in an official governmental capacity. Back to the special rights of Christians to discriminate against anyone they don’t like for any particular reason.
The statement also referred to Obergefell as an "alteration of the Constitution," charging that it "read a right to same-sex marriage into the Fourteenth Amendment even though that right is found nowhere in the text."
The justices made clear that, in their view, devout Christians are now being actively discriminated against based on the fact that same-sex couples have been afforded the same right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that heterosexuals have enjoyed.
"Obergefell was read to suggest that being a public official with traditional Christian values was legally tantamount to invidious discrimination toward homosexuals," Thomas wrote. "Since Obergefell, parties have continually attempted to label people of good will as bigots merely for refusing to alter their religious beliefs in the wake of prevailing orthodoxy."
Remember, there's good people on both sides—but religious bigots are better and deserve superior treatment since fairness is personally wounding to their belief system and their moral obligation to discriminate against others.
Add Obergefell to the list of Supreme Court precedents religious conservatives will be taking aim at, particularly if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to take the seat left open by the late great Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Posted with permission from Daily Kos.
