Former county clerk had disputed lawyers’ fees for Kentucky couple who won $100,000 damages

Kim Davis, the former county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses in Kentucky to same-sex couples, must pay a total of $260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one couple, according to a federal judge’s ruling.

That is in addition to $100,000 in damages a jury said the former Rowan county clerk should pay the couple who sued.

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Davis drew international attention when she was briefly jailed in 2015 over her refusal despite the US supreme court’s legalization of same-sex marriage. She based her refusal on her belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    593·
    10 months ago

    I actually was doing the math on this kind of thing lately, but it was RE: Alex Jones/Sandy Hook.

    So, the average US lifespan is about 77.

    So a court case taking 10 years is about 1/10th of your entire life.

    Now, consider that the beginning of your life (say up to 13 or so) you’re not really in any mental position to be able to bring a court case. At the end of your life (similarly probably the last 15 years or so), you’re in a similar position, where your body and mind may be failing and you may not be in a position to bring a court case.

    So if we cut off the “unusable in court” years of our lives, we’re left with about 50 years of good quality “living” as an adult.

    That means a court case taking 10 years is actually closer to 1/5th of your entire life.

    How is a life where a large portion of it was fighting in court just to get a bare minimum of what is passing for justice a quality life?

    Do people not understand the passage of time and these are literally lives being wasted fighting for justice from fucking idiots?

    I understand the whole “court moves slow” but god damn there’s got to be a better fucking system than making people wait out giant chunks of their lives for a pathetic half-ass result that isn’t anywhere close to “justice.”

    It’s a fucking travesty that anyone defends it. It’s a broken ass system, stop acting like we can fix something that places such little value of the time spent on such things in a persons life.

    Seriously if I had spent that many years trying to claw back justice from a fuckwit like this or Alex Jones, I would not look back and think I had had a chance to have a “life well lived.” No, the “justice” system took that from me by taking its sweet fucking time.

    • IamSparticles@lemmy.zipEnglish
      211·
      10 months ago

      I’m not sure I follow your point. Do you think people actually do nothing but sit in court for hours every day while a case goes through multiple appeals?

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
        15·
        10 months ago

        Well for starters these people have had a huge bill hanging over their heads. Also the court case can determine how they must live their lives. Apart from that it puts a huge stress on people waiting in uncertainty of what will be decided, without really being able to do much about it.
        So although it may not take life quality away equally for all, there is absolutely a risk that it does to a very high degree. And as always with such things, it generally hits the little guy way harder than rich people.

        • IamSparticles@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          In many cases, your point would be valid. In this particular case, the ACLU sued on the plaintiffs’ behalf, and would cover the legal bills if the courts hadn’t ordered Kim Davis to pay.

      • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
        11·
        10 months ago

        “Those wronged have to wait 1/5 the average human lifespan for justice.”

        There. I can summarize it for you, but I can’t understand it for you.

        • IamSparticles@lemmy.zipEnglish
          11·
          10 months ago

          That’s not true, though. The wronged parties already got what they wanted. They were issued their marriage license while she was in prison. The ACLU’s purpose in suing Davis for damages and legal fees is to make sure that the precedent is clearly established and other officials will be dissuaded from pulling similar stunts in the future. Worst case scenario at this point is that the ACLU is on the hook for the legal fees.