In a significant development, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to deliberate on a potentially groundbreaking case that challenges the historic decision that legalized same-sex marriage across the nation. This pivotal meeting will take place during the justices’ private conference.

At the heart of this case is an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who made headlines for her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. Davis is seeking to reverse a lower court’s ruling that requires her to pay $554,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple she denied a marriage license.

The justices are poised to announce their decision on whether they will hear Davis’s appeal as soon as Monday. If they choose to proceed, it could have profound implications for the legal landscape of same-sex marriage in the United States.

Davis’s legal team has consistently referenced Justice Clarence Thomas in their arguments, pointing to his unique stance among the nine justices. Thomas remains the sole justice who has publicly advocated for the reconsideration of the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

In urging the court to take up her case, Davis’ lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.

Thomas was one of four dissenting justices in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other dissenters who also remain on the court.

Roberts has been silent on the subject since he wrote a dissenting opinion in the case. Alito has continued to criticise the decision, but said recently he was not advocating that it be overturned.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was not on the court in 2015, has said there are times when the court should correct mistakes and overturn decisions, as it did in the 2022 case that ended a constitutional right to abortion.

But Barrett has suggested recently that same-sex marriage might be in a different category than abortion because people have relied on the decision when they married and had children.

Davis drew national attention to eastern Kentucky’s Rowan County when she turned away same-sex couples, saying her faith prevented her from complying with the high court ruling. She defied court orders to issue the licences until a federal judge jailed her for contempt of court in September 2015.

She was released after her staff issued the licences on her behalf but removed her name from the form. The Kentucky Legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licences.

Davis lost a reelection bid in 2018.