Idaho to pay court costs in same-sex parent rights lawsuit

The Idaho Constitutional Defense Council has agreed to pay more than $227,000 in legal fees to attorneys for a woman who sued and won after the state refused to add her name to a birth certificate for a child she had with her same-sex partner.

The council, which met Tuesday, oversees a fund of money created in 1995 to finance Idaho’s legal confrontations with the federal government over state sovereignty. It’s been almost exclusively used to cover legal fees when the state is sued over laws that are ultimately found to be unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered the state to pay the legal fees to attorneys for Adela Ayala in January. When Ayala’s child was born in 2012, Idaho officials refused to add her name to the birth certificate because the women weren’t married and Ayala’s partner was the birth mother. At the time, same-sex marriage was illegal in Idaho.

The fund, which is periodically replenished by the Idaho Legislature, will have more than $1.3 million remaining once the payment to Ayala’s attorneys is processed.