Summary: With Kentucky’s Attorney General backing out, Gov. Beshear had to hire a private lawyers to keep the fight against gay marriage going.
Two months ago, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples can marry in every state, a ruling that went against the majority votes by citizens in many states. Kentucky is one of those states that will fight to defend the state’s gay marriage ban that had been in place for two years.
Gov. Steve Beshear declares that the people of Kentucky deserve a final and full understanding of what the law entails, at no matter the cost. Kentucky has been stuck with a bill of over $2 million for the legal fees that gay couples fighting the marriage ban built up before the Supreme Court ruling. The state is also paying for the private attorneys, which are fighting the appeals, at a contract of $260,000.
While the state can challenge the total amount owed, District Judge Charles R. Simpson III will make the final decision as to how much taxpayers will pay and things don’t look for the state. Previous courts have leaned heavily into favoring the gay couples. Before his death last year, U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II gave the lawyers for the gay couples $70,778 for the legal costs incurred fighting the ban plus he threw in an additional $10,000 because they “undertook a difficult, unpopular case.”
A total of nine attorneys have submitted their hour totals spent on the two cases that went before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Law firms Clay Daniel Walton and Adams and the Fauver Law Office were the firms that led the fight with the support of the ACLU and Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.
The attorneys claim that they faced harassment at their offices and private homes as well as a few violent outbursts from people such as a water bottle being thrown at them. They have asked for $1.16 million to cover their legal fees but were given a total of $2.09 million to cover the challenges they faced.
The Attorney General’s office did not want to continue the fight against gay marriage, knowing that it would cost a lot of money.
Source: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/08/24/4002941_legal-fight-over-kentuckys-same.html?rh=1
Photo: politico.com