The conservative-majority US Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, which was legalized nationwide by the same court in 2015.

As is customary when they refuse to examine a case, the senior judges did not justify their decision.

Kim Davis, a former administrative secretary for a Kentucky county who had refused to issue marriage documents to same-sex couples, was asking the Court to reconsider its 2015 ruling.

The refusal to examine the case should confirm his conviction to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to a gay couple who were refused certification of their marriage.

Conservatives have a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, and at least four votes were needed for the country's highest court to agree to hear the case.

Kim Davis's appeal had raised concerns within the LGBT+ community, fearing that the judges might decide to reverse the decision legalizing same-sex marriage, three years after overturning decades of precedent by revoking the federal guarantee of abortion.

This decision caused a seismic shock in the country.

In a personal argument accompanying the abortion ruling, Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas had called for a re-examination of the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which recognized same-sex marriage nationwide.

"Love has won again"

This ruling was "flawed from the start," reacted Mat Staver, Kim Davis's lawyer, on Monday, promising to "continue working to overturn it."

"The question is not whether the Supreme Court will do it, but when," he added.

"Today, love has won again," said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, in a statement. "The Supreme Court made it clear today that refusing to respect the constitutional rights of others is not without consequences," she added.

In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that marriage was not reserved for heterosexual couples. The 2015 decision then compelled states that did not recognize same-sex unions not only to marry them, but also to recognize marriages performed elsewhere.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution "requires a State to perform marriage between two persons of the same sex," and this in the name of equality before the law, Judge Anthony Kennedy wrote in the judgment.

This 2015 decision was widely celebrated by the left across the country, with President Barack Obama at the time hailing it as "a major step in our march toward equality" and "a victory for America."

Today there are more than 820,000 same-sex married couples in the United States, according to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles — more than double the number recorded in June 2015.