In her first TV interview since joining the Supreme Court, Justice Amy Coney Barrett says that the Supreme Court “should not be imposing its own values on the American people,” as the high courts considers whether to revisit its same-sex marriage ruling.
Could this be a good sign for marriage equality?
In the interview, CBS News senior correspondent Norah O’Donnell quotes from Barrett’s new book (thus the interview) where she wrote:
“The court has held that the rights to marry, engage in sexual intimacy, use birth control, and raise children are fundamental, but the rights to do business, commit suicide, and obtain abortion are not.”
Barrett concurred saying, “Yes, that is our doctrine, and that is what we’ve said.”
In her first television interview since joining the Supreme Court in October 2020, Justice Amy Coney Barrett discussed Roe v. Wade with CBS News’ @NorahODonnell and whether marriage and contraception might also be up for revision. They also discuss her new book, “Listening to the… pic.twitter.com/P9gKeC28vj
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) September 4, 2025
The LGBTQ community has been concerned about same-sex marriage rights since the high court’s June 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, which was considered ‘settled law’ for decades.
More from CBS News:
Barrett was in the five-justice majority that voted to overturn Roe, and the decision raised concerns from critics that other precedents grounded in the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause — namely those legalizing same-sex marriage and establishing the right to contraception — would be at risk of falling next.
Bolstering those fears was a concurring opinion authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, which no other justice joined, in which he said the Supreme Court should reconsider those decisions.
But Justice Brett Kavanaugh also addressed precedents involving contraception and gay marriage in his own solo concurring opinion, writing that “overruling Roe does not mean the overruling of those precedents, and does not threaten or cast doubt on those precedents.”
Barrett’s remarks come as the Supreme Court has been asked to hear a long-shot bid to revisit its 2015 landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling (which legalized same-sex marriage) by Kim Davis, a former Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The high court has not announced if it will hear Davis’s case. It’s unclear whether there are four votes to reconsider the decision or five to overturn it.
Kim Davis again asks Supreme Court to hear her case, hopes to overturn gay marriage https://t.co/s6TSaovRmt
— Lexington Herald-Leader (@heraldleader) July 24, 2025
Last month, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned during an interview on the Raging Moderates podcast: “My prediction is they will do to gay marriage what they did to abortion — they will send it back to the states.”
Note – more than two dozen states have trigger laws that would limit marriage equality if the Supreme Court were to overturn its 2015 ruling.
O’Donnell’s full interview with Justice Amy Coney Barrett airs this weekend on “CBS Sunday Morning.”
Stay tuned…
Hillary Clinton predicts SCOTUS will eventually overturn same-sex marriage https://t.co/twvLn732kb
— Axios (@axios) August 20, 2025
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