Kentucky owes $2.1 million for its fight against same-sex marriage

(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

published 10 September 2015

Now that the dust has settled two months out from the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage, state officials who defended same-sex marriage bans are receiving invoices from the attorneys who defeated them — and the price tags aren't pretty.

In some states' cases, legal fees are upwards of a million dollars. Kentucky, for instance, owes $2.1 million for services rendered. Michigan is facing a $1.9 million demand from attorneys in one of the four cases that went to the Supreme Court, and Florida has a tab of about $700,000.

The payment requests come as part of a federal law that says that the court "in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party... a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs," Al Jazeera reports. Most private attorneys who took on these cases did so pro bono. Stephan Rosenthal, an attorney who fought Florida's marriage ban, explains the law and the hefty tabs this way: "It's recognition that people need lawyers to fight the government, which has lots of lawyers, when they feel their civil rights are being violated. To encourage lawyers to take these cases, you need to provide the potential to get paid in the end."