Now that marriage equality is the law of the land, states that argued the wrong side of the issue are getting lawyer bills:
States that defended same-sex marriage bans — most did, to some extent — are now being asked to pay the legal fees for those litigants under a 40-year-old federal law that says the court “in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party … a reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs.”
Or as Michigan attorney Dana Nessel put it: “It’s the price governments pay for defending bigotry” [Steve Friess, “States That Fought Same-Sex Marriage Owe Millions in Legal Fees,” Al-Jazeera America, 2015.09.10].
Settlements already struck have ranged from $58K in North Dakota to $1.5M in Pennsylvania. South Dakota’s cost for fighting Rosenbrahn v. Daugaard could be $300K or more:
Disputing the bill could enlarge it for South Dakota, a state that continued to fight same-sex marriage even after the Supreme Court ruled in June. Newville said the tab is about $300,000 — and the meter is still running.
“They’re doubling down to try to get out of paying the fees,” said Newville, who settled with North Dakota for far less because that case didn’t make it far in the courts before the matter was taken up by the Supreme Court. “That’s only going to add to the final cost” [Friess, 2015.09.10].
And that’s just the cost for the single court case that South Dakota lost pre-Obergefell but kept drawing out. Just wait until some Kim-Davis-wannabe in a South Dakota courthouse takes Attorney General Jackley’s bad advice and puts her religion above her oath to uphold the Constitution. That will add another $44K per incident.
Send the bill to Rep. Roger Hunt. He started the mess…so he should pay for it.
claw back all executive pay raises and bonuses to start. We are a red state that derives much/most of what it costs to run the state from the Federal government. This is NOT Wall Street, it’s POOR little South Dakota. We can’t even afford to pay our teachers a decent wage. We need to demand a cap on executive state salaries until things equalize.
In the faux state of personal responsibility there aughta be a law that the AG who expends public funds for “friend of the court” or political amicus cases is personally responsible for court-ordered costs.
Someone please perform an accounting of: 1) how much the AG’s prosecutorial activism cost the state; and 2) how much the AG’s prosecutorial activism gained the state. Someone outside the AG’s office must do the accounting; since we know that ‘lawyers can’t do math’.
What Barry, Shirley and John said. Thrice over.
Actually, Barry, the bill may properly belong to the people of South Dakota who passed the gay-marriage ban in 2006.
Shirley, didn’t Governor Daugaard give us something like that executive salary cap, or at least cuts, in 2011? ;-)
John, I would especially like to see Item #2 in your accounting suggestion: what compelling state law enforcement interest is the A.G. supporting when he files those amicus curiae in our name and on our dime?
If Jackley keeps mangling South Dakota court cases fighting against equality, we’ll have to enact a state income tax.
jackley’s littered trail to governorship,,,and then the presidency