Virginia to Pay $520,000 to Plaintiffs' Attorneys in Same-Sex Marriage Case

My former law partners, Tom Shuttleworth and Bob Ruloff

Across the country we see Republican elected officials - usually bent on prostituting them selves to Christofascists in the GOP base - opposing same sex marriage and filing one motion and appeal after another seeking to stop the inevitable.  Not only does this run up huge wastes in government funds and legal staff time, but when the opponents of marriage equality ultimately lose, the state gets hit with paying the legal fees of the plaintiffs who had been discriminated against all because the "godly folk" seek to inflict their beliefs on all of society.  And these legal fees can be high as demonstrated by the fees Virginia must pay to the attorneys for the plaintiffs in Bostic v. Rainey: $520,000 better spent on the needs of Virginia's citizens.  The Virginian Pilot has details:

Virginia will pay $520,000 to the lawyers for two same-sex couples who successfully challenged the state's gay marriage ban.

The settlement agreement was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. The attorneys had sought more than $1.7 million.

The law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher will receive $459,000. Shuttleworth, Ruloff, Swain, Haddad & Morecock will receive $61,000.

Court papers show that attorneys logged 2,372 hours on the case. Their fees will be paid by the state Department of Treasury's Division of Risk Management.

U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen declared Virginia's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional last February. A federal appeals court upheld the decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case.

I hope Victoria Cobb and the hate merchants at The Family Foundation are happy with what their religious based anti-gay animus has cost the state.