Kentucky Gay-Marriage Case: Taxpayers, Not Clerk, To Pay Fees

FRANKFORT, KY — Kentucky taxpayers are on the hook for more than $220,000 in attorneys' fees in a same-sex couple's winning fight against a county clerk who refused to issue them a marriage license, a federal judge ordered.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis was acting on behalf of the state government when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of her personal religious beliefs, U.S. District Judge David Bunning said Friday. He ordered the state to pay $222,695 in attorneys' fees and another $2,008 in costs. He said the county government and Davis herself are not liable. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Davis spent five days in jail for refusing a judge's order that she issue the licenses to gay couples shortly after a U.S. Supreme Court decision effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Kentucky's Republican governor signed a law last year that removed the names of clerks from state marriage licenses.

By ADAM BEAM, Associated Press

Photo credit: Timothy D. Easley/Associated Press