More than a year after the city of St. George agreed to pay a settlement over its attempt to block a drag show in a public park, a federal judge has ordered the city to cough up an additional $350,000 in attorney fees.
U.S. District Judge David Nuffer, who sided with the Southern Utah Drag Stars in 2023 and found the city’s actions violated free speech protections, issued the order Friday, directing the city to also pay $902 in legal costs.
The fees cover more than 1,100 hours of work billed at rates ranging from $300 to $400 an hour, along with paralegal time billed at $110 to $150 an hour, for the drag group’s legal team from Jenner & Block and the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, according to the judge’s written decision.
The city had argued those hourly rates and the time billed were “unreasonable,” when compared to the $285 rate it pays its own attorneys, the ruling states.
Nuffer said those arguments “fail to recognize the case’s factual and legal complexity,” which required “intensive” investigation even before the lawsuit was filed.
The ruling also directs the city to honor the settlement reached in January 2025, which says the drag group is “entitled to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs,” the filing states.
The settlement required the city to pay a monetary sum to the Drag Stars and issue a public apology saying it “violated” the group’s First Amendment rights, which the city did in February 2025.
Read the full article by Samantha Moilanen at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.