Arizona taxpayers will pay half a million dollars for the unsuccessful fight against same-sex marriage, the Daily Sun reports:
U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick on Friday approved an agreement by the Attorney General’s Office to pay $300,000 in legal fees and costs to Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund for its role in the 2014 lawsuit challenging Arizona’s constitutional provision limiting marriage to one man and one woman. The state also will reimburse the group more than $2,000 in costs.
That comes on top of another $200,000 in legal fees the state already has paid to attorney Shawn Aiken, who had filed his own challenge to the ban. Attorney Jenny Pizer of Lambda Legal suggested the state is getting off easy.
“This reflects, among other things, the quality and efficiency of our work and resulting reasonableness of the hourly rates charged,” she said.
The fees also reflect an earlier case:
That involved a successful bid on behalf of Fred McQuire who had wed George Martinez in California after that state recognized same-sex marriages.After Martinez died in Arizona, this state Department of Health Services would not issue a death certificate recognizing McQuire as his legal spouse. Sedwick directed the agency to process the request.That ruling in September 2014 paved the way for the same judge the following month to strike down entirely the prohibition against gay nuptials.
