Kentucky told to pay attorney fees in same-sex marriage case

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Kentucky taxpayers to pay 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. But the clerk wasn't liable for those fees.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning said today that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis was acting for the state government when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the basis of her personal religious beliefs. He ordered the state, instead, to pay $222,695 in attorneys' fees and another $2,008 in costs. He said the county government and Davis herself are not liable.

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.