Jailed clerk in gay marriage dispute released

The clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, , has been ordered released.

Read: Kentucky clerk's office issues marriage license to gay couple, ending ban

The clerk has been held for contempt of court since Thursday last week, but the judge who sent her to jail, David L. Bunning of Federal District Court, ruled that she should be freed from a county detention center in Grayson.

Although a Supreme Court decision in June legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States, Ms. Davis said her beliefs as an Apostolic Christian kept her from sanctioning any such nuptials.

Judge Bunning said last month that Ms. Davis had to issue the licenses, but she maintained her resistance and was sent to jail.

Attorney's assigned to Ms. Davis, asked an appellate court to force Governor Steve Beshear to allow her to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses based on her religious convictions.

Ms. Davis’s argument and eventual incarceration have resonated deeply among Christian conservatives, many of whom fear an erosion of religious liberty.

Transforming the clerk of a rural Kentucky county into an unyielding symbol of opposition to same-sex marriage.

Ms. Davis’s deputies began processing licenses after she was detained.

Read: US Pastor NOT arrested for refusing to marry gay couple

In a signal of the possible courtroom battles to come, Ms. Davis’s lawyers have questioned whether those licenses are valid, but Rowan County officials have insisted they will be recognized.