LGBTQ rights group warns Davis’s case would unleash ‘legal anarchy’
Delray Beach, FL – Truth Wins Out strongly urged the United States Supreme Court to reject hearing Kim Davis’s challenge to same-sex marriage when it meets for its private conference on Friday, November 7. The organization warned that granting Davis’s petition would undermine the rule of law, promote religious anarchy, and reopen settled questions about the constitutional rights of LGBTQ Americans.
“Kim Davis is not a martyr — she’s a menace to the rule of law,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “If federal workers can pick and choose which laws to follow based on their religion, then we no longer have a functioning democracy. We have government by personal ideology, where the Constitution becomes optional and equal protection is replaced by personal whim.”
Davis, the former county clerk from Rowan County, Kentucky, famously refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Court’s landmark 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision legalized marriage equality nationwide. Her defiance sparked national outrage, multiple lawsuits, and briefly landed her in jail for contempt of court. Despite leaving office years ago, Davis has continued to pursue her legal fight — now asking the Supreme Court to revisit the issue of whether public officials can deny government services based on their personal religious beliefs.
A Dangerous Path Toward Legal Chaos
Truth Wins Out warned that Davis’s argument would effectively create a “caste system of legal chaos”, where government employees could arbitrarily discriminate against citizens under the guise of religious conviction. Such a precedent would not only harm LGBTQ Americans, but could also open the door to widespread abuse.
“If Kim Davis got her way,” said Besen, “a marriage clerk could refuse to sign certificates for interracial couples, mixed-faith marriages, divorced people who wish to remarry, women who aren’t virgins, or atheists who don’t hold religious ceremonies. Once the principle of equal treatment is replaced by religious veto power, every citizen’s rights become conditional — subject to the personal prejudices of whoever happens to be behind the government counter that day.”
Truth Wins Out warned that such a system would lead to every government office becoming a fiefdom of personal belief and bigotry, leaving Americans uncertain of their rights and subject to random discrimination.
“This is not liberty — it’s lawlessness dressed in piety,” said Besen. “America’s founders built a secular government precisely to avoid this kind of chaos.”
Rule of Law, Not Rule of Faith
Truth Wins Out emphasized that public service is a secular duty, not a religious calling. When citizens take government jobs, they swear an oath to uphold the Constitution — not their personal theology.
“If Kim Davis is unable to do her job without imposing her personal beliefs, she is unfit for public office,” said Besen. “Her job is to serve the people — all people — not to act as a preacher behind the government desk. If she wants to promote her religious views, she’s free to do so in the private sector. But the taxpayers of Kentucky didn’t hire her to discriminate.”
Truth Wins Out pointed out that Davis’s case is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader effort by the Christian nationalist movement to weaponize ‘religious freedom’ as a license to discriminate. The organization cited Project 2025 — a sweeping conservative policy blueprint — which seeks to expand such exemptions across federal agencies, allowing employees to deny services on religious grounds. To learn more about Project 2025, read Truth Wins Out’s new report, “Behind the Mask”.
Truth Wins Out also expressed concern that hearing the Davis case could embolden local officials nationwide to defy federal laws on ideological grounds — from refusing to process abortion-related paperwork to denying services to immigrants, Muslims, or political opponents.
A Call for Judicial Clarity
Truth Wins Out urged the Supreme Court to deny certiorari and let lower court rulings stand, preserving the integrity of Obergefell v. Hodges and the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process.
“We fought too hard for equality to let zealots drag us back into the darkness,” said Besen. “The Supreme Court should shut the door on this farce once and for all.”
About Truth Wins Out
Truth Wins Out is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to advance liberty and democracy, protect the rights of LGBTQ people and other minorities, combat religious extremism, and fight against the spread of disinformation.
Media Contact:
Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Email: WBesen@TruthWinsOut.org
Phone: 917-691-5118
Website: www.TruthWinsOut.org