A Missoula judge has ordered the state to pay about $95,000 in attorneys’ fees in a case over a state law defining male and female.
Two plaintiffs and the ACLU of Montana sued over a 2023 law defining sex in state code, eliminating legal recognition of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people. Missoula District Judge Shane Vannatta ruled the law unconstitutional, writing that the bill passed by the Legislature did not match its title.
The state will be required to pay the ACLU and two outside attorneys for their work on the case.
The state is also awaiting a ruling on whether it must pay attorneys’ fees in another case.
The ACLU successfully challenged a separate 2021 law that prevented transgender, nonbinary and intersex Montanans from updating the gender marker on their birth certificates. A Billings judge held the state health department in contempt of court for failing to follow a court order amid ongoing litigation. The state was ordered to pay attorneys’ fees as a punishment, but the amount has not yet been decided.
