Judge orders California to pay $4.5M in legal fees

(The Center Square) – A federal judge has ordered California to pay $4.52 million in attorneys’ fees to the Thomas More Society, which challenged a state policy related to student gender identity in the case Mirabelli v. Bonta. In a court order, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California granted the full fee request of $4.52 in legal fees to the Thomas More Society, the law firm representing the two public school teachers in the case. Benitez said California has continued to challenge aspects of the ruling, including a recent motion seeking to modify the injunction. The court detailed a pattern of what it called “litigation intransigence” by state defendants, including repeated motions to dismiss after prior ones were denied and filing an appeal without waiting for a ruling. Benitez described the ongoing litigation as based on “the thinnest of arguments.” The case follows litigation that began