The State of Idaho will end up spending about half a million dollars after losing its fight against same-sex marriage.
Republican governor Butch Otter was especially opposed to allowing same-sex couples marry in Idaho, and now his fight is going to cost the good citizens a hefty sum. U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale has awarded attorneys who won the freedom to marry $401,663. On top of that, Gov. Otter spent nearly $87,000 on an outside attorney to defend his state’s unconstitutional law, bringing the total to nearly a half-million dollars – not including costs incurred in-house.
Otter’s fight against marriage equality took place as the governor was running for re-election, which he won.
In May, Judge Dale struck down Idaho’s ban, but Gov. Otter vowed to fight.
In October, with many focused on the trumped-up lawsuit and religious right hijinks surrounding Coeur d’Alene, Idaho’s Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, Gov. Otter actually used that case to petition the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear his case, en banc – by the entire court’s 11 judges. They refused.
Idaho same-sex couples have been marrying since October 15.
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