A federal judge has ruled that the state of Kentucky must pay $1.1 million to the attorneys who represented the plaintiffs who successfully challenged the state’s gay marriage ban last year.
ABC News reports that in 2014, U.S. District Judge John Heyburn ruled the state’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional.
Attorney General Jack Conway refused to appeal, announcing that he believed the ban was discriminatory and destined to fail in the federal appeals courts. But former Gov. Steve Beshear hired outside attorneys to continue defending the ban “so all Kentuckians will have finality and understanding of what the law is.” He signed a $260,000 contract with that firm, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
The case — and others like it in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee — made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which effectively legalized gay marriage last summer.
