Idaho agrees to pay attorney fees for vet in same-sex burial case

BOISE - Idaho’s top state elected officials have approved payment of $70,000 for attorney fees to Madelynn Lee Taylor, the Navy veteran who went to court to fight for the right to have her ashes interred with those of her wife at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery. “There is no question that the plaintiff is entitled to an award of fees and expenses under controlling law,” Deputy Idaho Attorney General W. Scott Zanzig wrote in a memo to the state controller, which was reviewed this morning by the state Board of Examiners. The board, which consists of the governor, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General, unanimously approved the request. Taylor’s attorneys had requested $78,408 in fees and costs; the state negotiated that down to $70,000. The Board of Examiners’ vote this morning refers the claim to the state Constitutional Defense Council for payment from the Constitutional Defense Fund, a fund set aside by lawmakers that’s been repeatedly tapped to pay the winning side’s attorney fees in cases the state loses. Taylor’s first application to be interred with her wife at the state Veterans Cemetery was rejected, based on Idaho’s previous law and constitutional provision banning same-sex marriage. After courts overturned the ban, Taylor’s request was granted, but the state objected to her request for a permanent injunction barring the state from removing her wife Jean Mixner’s ashes from the cemetery or preventing the two from being interred together after Taylor’s death, and instead asked that the case be dismissed. A federal court granted Taylor’s request and permanently enjoined the state. In their motion for attorney fees, Taylor’s attorneys, led by Boise attorney Deborah Ferguson, cited her “complete victory in this case.”