The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider whether to hear a challenge that could reopen the question of who can get married. The challenge to marriage equality is being brought by Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who in 2015 defied a federal court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

As SCOTUSblog reports, the justices will privately discuss Davis’s petition on November 7. Davis, who was briefly jailed a decade ago after citing “God’s authority” in refusing to issue licenses to a gay couple, is now asking the high court not only to reverse her loss in the lower courts but to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 decision that established a constitutional right to marry for same-sex couples nationwide.

A Gallup poll from May 2024 found that 69 percent of U.S. adults support legal same-sex marriage—close to the record high of 71 percent. Sixty-four percent said same-sex relations are morally acceptable. Support remains strongest among Democrats at 83 percent and independents at 74 percent, while only 46 percent of Republicans back marriage equality, reflecting the enduring partisan divide.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected Davis’s claim that her refusal was protected by religious freedom, ruling that she acted as a government official, not a private citizen. A jury had previously awarded $50,000 each to the couple, David Moore and David Ermold, who were denied a license.

Several members of the court have recently commented on the 2015 marriage equality ruling, offering clues to how they might view Davis’s petition. Justice Clarence Thomas has long urged the court to revisit major decisions, such as Obergefell v. Hodges, arguing in a concurrence in the court’s 2022 Dobbs ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade, that such rulings expand constitutional rights beyond what the framers intended. He and Justice Samuel Alito have both raised concerns that Obergefell diminished protections for people who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett recently noted in an interview with The New York Times that marriage equality now carries “very concrete reliance interest,” meaning millions of Americans have built their lives and legal relationships around it. In her September book, Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution, Barrett described the “rights to marry” as “fundamental,” Newsweek reports.

According to SCOTUSblog, if the justices decline to take up the case, that decision could be announced as soon as November 10. But if they agree to hear it, the case would mark the court’s most direct confrontation with Obergefell in years and a potentially seismic moment for LGBTQ+ rights in the post-Roejudicial era. If the court agrees to hear it, oral arguments could be scheduled for the spring, with a decision possible by June. If the justices decline to take up the case, the lower-court rulings against Davis will stand.