Gay Marriage Fight Costs $223K More

(On Monday) U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale ordered the state of Idaho to pay an additional quarter-million dollars in attorney fees and costs to the four couples who successfully sued to overturn Idaho’s ban on same-sex marriage. The couples’ attorneys had sought $304,206 in fees and costs on appeal; the state objected, and the court lowered the amount to $223,191. That’s on top of the $401,662 the state already had to pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys for the U.S. District Court portion of the case, before Idaho appealed it unsuccessfully to the 9 ^th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, and the $55,000 the state spent on outside attorneys in the district court portion of the case hired by Gov. Butch Otter. You can read the judge’s ruling here / Betsy Russell , Eye on Boise.