TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – A federal judge has directed Kansas to pay $295,000 to attorneys who successfully challenged the state’s ban on gay marriage in a lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree on Sept. 27 approved a request from American Civil Liberties Union lawyers and Kansas City-area attorney Mark Johnson.
The state did not contest the amount.
The lawsuit was filed in 2014 by five gay and lesbian couples against state officials in agencies that issue driver’s licenses and maintain marriage and birth records.
Kansas law and the state constitution prohibit same-sex marriage, but in 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such bans violate the federal constitution.
Crabtree issued an order in July barring the state from treating same-sex couples differently than opposite-sex couples in allowing them to marry or extending other benefits.
