Amy Coney Barrett – Photo: United States Supreme Court
In her first televised interview since her 2020 confirmation, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared on CBS Sunday Morning to promote her new book, offering only vague commentary to host Norah O’Donnell in defense of the Court’s legitimacy when asked whether justices might overturn Obergefell v. Hodges.
Barrett was pressed on recent remarks from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who told the Raging Moderates podcast that the Court will likely “do to gay marriage what they did to abortion” and “send it back to the states.”
Clinton was pointing to the Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade and held that abortion rights are not guaranteed under the Constitution.
Asked to respond to Clinton’s comments, Barrett said, “I think people who criticize the court, or who are outside the court, say a lot of different things […] we have to tune those things out.”
The Supreme Court faces historically low approval among the American public. A September 2025 Pew poll found just 48% of Americans view the institution favorably, its lowest rating ever. A Gallup survey in July recorded even weaker support, with approval at only 39%.
Barrett is not seen as a guaranteed vote to overturn Obergefell. Many outlets describe her instead as a potential swing justice if the issue comes before the Court.
During the interview, O’Donnell noted a passage in Barrett’s book where she describes “the rights to marry” as “fundamental,” contrasting them with the “complicated moral debate” over abortion. Barrett was among the five justices who voted to overturn Roe.
Still, Barrett has pointed to Chief Justice John Roberts’ dissent in Obergefell. In a November 2016 lecture before joining the Court, she told an audience his dissent argued that “those who want same-sex marriage, you have every right to lobby in state legislatures to make that happen, but the dissent’s view was that it wasn’t for the court to decide.”
She then hinted the door could be open to overturning the ruling, telling the same audience, “I think Obergefell, and what we’re talking about for the future of the court, it’s really a who decides question.”
The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear a case that could return same-sex marriage to the states. The petition was filed in August by Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who gained international attention for refusing marriage licenses to same-sex couples after Obergefell.
Conservative Christians attacked fast food giant Chick-fil-A after a franchisee in Orem, Utah, posted a Facebook message celebrating a young gay couple’s marriage.
"CONGRATULATIONS TO THE HAPPY COUPLE!" the December 3 post reads. "Dougie & Toby recently got married and we are so beyond happy for them!"
The celebratory message quickly triggered backlash from conservatives. The "Chick-fil-A Orem Plaza" Facebook account ultimately restricted public comments to users who had been following the page for more than 24 hours.
Federal Judge Victoria Calvert has permanently blocked a portion of Georgia’s law banning prisoners from receiving gender-affirming care, ruling on Dec. 3 that the state’s blanket ban on hormone therapy violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in May and implemented in July, the law bars prisoners from receiving hormone therapy or other treatment for gender dysphoria -- even when a doctor deems it medically necessary. It prohibits the state from funding such care and blocks transgender inmates from paying for it themselves. Non-transgender prisoners, however, may still receive hormone therapy and other gender-affirming treatments so long as the care is not related to gender transition.
International LGBTQ rights advocates are condemning a brutal police raid on a queer-friendly nightclub in Azerbaijan that resulted in the mass detention of more than 100 people.
As first reported by Qiy Vaar!, a website run by an Azerbaijani LGBTQ advocacy organization of the same name, police raided Labyrinth nightclub, a queer-friendly venue in Baku, around 1 a.m. on Saturday, December 27. More than 106 patrons were detained and held in custody for 12 to 13 hours.
Security forces reportedly entered the club and forcibly escorted patrons onto the street before loading them en masse into police vehicles and transporting them to the Nasimi District Police Department in Baku.
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