Why the right wing has put marriage equality and LGBTQ rights on the ballot

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Same-sex marriage advocates expressed concern Monday after rightwing Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito issued a fresh attack on a landmark 2015 decision that had been hailed as a “transformative triumph'” for marriage equality and LGBTQ rights.

The attack came when the top court declined to hear an appeal from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in the Kentucky who refused, after the Obergefell v. Hodges et. al. decision, to issue same-sex marriage certificates citing her religious beliefs.

In a statement (pdf) accompanying the denial of Davis’s appeal, written by Thomas and joined by Alito, the justices say “Davis may have been one of the first victims of this court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefelldecision, but she will not be the last.” Continue reading.