Appeals Court Rules Kentucky Government Pay $270,000 in COVID Church Lockdown Case

A federal appeals court has ruled that the state of Kentucky must pay over $270,000 in attorneys’ fees to individuals who sued the state over Governor Andy Beshear’s COVID-19 lockdown policies. In 2020, plaintiffs Randall Daniel, TJ Roberts, and Sally O’Boyle filed a lawsuit against Governor Beshear’s administration, arguing that the lockdown policies violated their constitutional rights.

In a complex legal decision, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction barring the Beshear administration from enforcing its lockdown policies against the churchgoers, and then dismissed the lawsuit against the administration as a moot issue. The plaintiff churchgoers subsequently sought attorneys’ fees in the case, but the Beshear administration opposed the effort, stating that the plaintiffs were not the prevailing legal party in the lawsuit.

On Monday, a panel of three judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district ruling (pdf) that the Beshear administration should pay $272,142.50 to the plaintiffs for their attorney’s fees.

The repayment of the attorneys’ fees will come from public taxpayer funds, although the lawsuit named Beshear in his official capacity as governor.

Following the appeals court decision, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) also responded on Twitter.

NTD News reached out to Beshear’s office for comment but did not receive a response before this article was published.

Kentucky’s Lockdowns

As COVID-19 cases began to emerge in the United States in early 2020, various state and local governments began advising people to remain at home and to practice social distancing, while declaring some business, cul