May 7, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) — U.S. natural marriage supporters are not only facing the possibility of attacks on their freedom of conscience and religion as marriage redefinition is forced on states across the country. They’re being compelled to foot the legal bill for homosexual activists as well.
A federal judge in Oklahoma awarded almost $300,000 last Friday to attorneys who brought the state’s constitutional marriage amendment down in court.
The decision brings the total taxpayer tab nationwide to more than $5 million for legal fees federal courts have ordered states to pay after having their marriage protection laws overturned.
The matter of attorney fees remains on hold in some cases as the U.S. Supreme Court deliberates homosexual “marriage.” The court heard arguments last week and a decision is expected by the end of June.
U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled that the legal team of lawyers advocating homosexual “marriage” for Oklahoma used “sound billing judgment,” and gave them $298,000 for costs incurred in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, where local officials took the case after Kern declared the amendment unconstitutional in January of last year.
Oklahoma voters had approved the state constitutional amendment protecting natural marriage by a three-to-one margin in 2004.
Kern, a 1994 Clinton appointee, said in his March 2014 decision striking down the amendment that the U.S. Constitution grants a right to same-sex “marriage” by prohibiting unequal treatment.
“Therefore,” Kern wrote, “the majority view in Oklahoma must give way to individual constitutional rights.”
In awarding legal fees to the attorneys arguing for “homosexual marriage” in Oklahoma, Kern did not allow $48,000 in plaintiffs’ fees for unsuccessfully petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court, according to The National Law Journal, but did award more than the $108,000 amount defendants had argued was suitable.
Kern rejected arguments by Tulsa County officials that the plaintiffs’ lawyers overcomplicated the case on appeal.
“Defendant’s arguments reflect a lack of appreciation for the complexity of this appeal and the legal nuances in the Supreme Court’s Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence,” Kern wrote. “For what should be obvious reasons, this was not a routine appeal from summary judgment in state court; instead, it presented a complex legal question in an uncertain and evolving legal landscape.”
Advocates of natural marriage decried Kern’s decision assigning the nearly $300,000 legal tab for marriage redefinition to Oklahoma citizens.
“This is an outrageous ruling,” National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown told LifeSiteNews. “A rush to judgment on a case that could very well be reversed by the US Supreme Court.”
“We encourage the state not to pay anything until we get a ruling on the underlying issue from the US Supreme Court,” Brown said. “Even then, it is wrong to reward activists for challenging a validly enacted constitutional amendment.”