Supreme Court dismisses clerk’s gay marriage objections

by Jesse Byrnes - 09/01/15 7:45 AM ET

The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request from a Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples based on her religious objections.

{mosads}Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis faces fines or even jail time if she did not start issuing the marriage licenses on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported.

Davis “holds an undisputed sincerely held religious belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, only,” her lawyers said when petitioning the court, according to NBC News.

The Supreme Court denied the request to block a lower court ruling that she issue the licenses, the first legal flareup involving the Supreme Court since it ruled on same-sex marriage in late June.

The Post reported that other legal battles have sprung up recently, including in a pair of counties in Texas and about a dozen counties in Alabama, involving the issuing of same-sex marriage licenses.

Monday’s ruling came in the form of a brief, one-sentence ruling that did not note any dissent or explanation for denial, nor did the court ask for a response from couples who had sued her or Kentucky officials Davis has sued, SCOTUSBlog noted.

Despite the ruling, same-sex couples seeking a marriage license were rejected Tuesday morning, according to local news reports.