Pastors who disliked the ruling on marriage equality had the ability to criticize it from the pulpit. No church had to admit LGBTQ members. Nothing changed.

State officials in Kentucky have been ordered to pay nearly $230,000 in attorneys’ fees to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in the case involving Kim Davis, a former clerk in Rowan County who refused to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Kim Davis ordered every clerk in her office to turn away same-sex couples. Although she was lauded as a folk hero by the Religious Right, those whose rights she denied had a different view: They knew Davis to be a religious extremist who believed she had a right to elevate her personal religious beliefs above their civil rights.