The fall-out from A&E’s suspension of Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty is spreading. It’s been the top story on Drudge Report all day, and the Facebook page Bring Back Phil Robertson currently has over 100,000 likes. For those who care about religious liberty and man-woman marriage, this is heartening.

This is similar to the reaction that happened when Dan Cathy, president of Chik-fil-A, spoke out in support of man-woman marriage. “Eat at Chick-fil-A” became a nationwide campaign to show support for freedom of speech.

What do we learn from this?

To begin with, the battle for religious liberties takes patience. There was little outrage when the Supreme Court struck down DOMA in its Windsor decision, even though the Supreme Court said that Congress sought to demean gays and lesbians through that law. A similar charge has been leveled against Phil Robertson. But, most, if not all, people who support Phil do not think his comments were demeaning towards gays and lesbians. He says this was not his intention:

I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.

The outcry that was absent during Windsor is here now, and it should make all judges in this nation pause before striking down same-sex marriage bans by parroting Windsor’s language about their being “demeaning” to gay people.

Thankfully, many Americans now see the consequences of Windsor’s false equating of animus with support for man-woman marriage. One hopes the courts will follow suit.

As Justice Scalia said in his dissent in Windsor: “I promise you this: The only thing that will ‘confine’ the Court’s holding is its sense of what it can get away with.”

While the excitement over the Duck Dynasty controversy may fade, one thing is for sure: The Court cannot so easily change the minds of the people about whether supporting man-woman marriage does or does not “demean” gays and lesbians. It is time courts reconsider what they can get away with.

— Michael Worley is a law student at Brigham Young University.