Constitutional Defense Council meets this morning on bills from same-sex marriage fight

Idaho’s Constitutional Defense Council meets this morning to consider two items: Payment of $401,663 in attorney fees and court costs to the winning side in the same-sex marriage case, per a U.S. District Court order; and payment of $55,000 in fees to outside attorneys that Gov. Butch Otter hired to help him with appealing the court decision to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. The council, which consists of the governor, the attorney general, the House speaker and the Senate president pro-tem, oversees the constitutional defense fund, which has a balance of nearly $1.7 million after lawmakers agreed to transfer another $1 million into it last year from the state’s general fund.