Kentucky’s newly appointed governor Matt Bevin is inheriting a legal bill for his state’s failed attempts at blocking same-sex marriage.
It started back in February 2014, when a district judge ruled that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. The state’s Attorney General at the time, Jack Conway, said he wouldn’t appeal to ruling.
That’s when the state’s Governor at the time, Steve Beshear, stepped in.
An antigay Democrat, Beshear hired a group of outside attorneys to defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. The case was eventually consolidated with several others to ultimately become Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court case that resulted in nationwide marriage equality.
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Since federal law dictates the losing side in a civil rights case must cover the winning side’s legal fees, the Supreme Court ruling meant Beshear, or rather Kentucky taxpayers, were now on the hook for the pro-marriage equality’s attorneys’ direct fees.
Beshear was voted out of office in November and replaced with Republican Matt Bevin earlier this month.
Now, Bevin’s offices has announced that, after more than a year of negotiating, the state and pro-marriage equality attorneys’ have almost settled on a number: $2,091,297. That’s up from the state’s initial offer of a paltry $581,000.
h/t: Pink News
