State of Indiana paying out huge legal fees to ACLU

Ever wonder how much, exactly, it costs for the state to appeal federal courts' decisions about Hoosier laws challenged by the ACLU and found unconstitutional? 

Today is your lucky day, taxpayer. Dan Carden reports for The Times of Northwest Indiana: 

"When a federal judge recently struck down portions of a 2016 Indiana law limiting the right to abortion, she also set the stage for another six-figure state payment to the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The exact amount Hoosier taxpayers will send to the ACLU to cover attorneys' fees for its most recent constitutional challenge on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky likely won't be determined until the appeal promised by Republican Attorney General Curtis Hill is concluded.

"But a review of state auditor records by The Times Media Co. found that Indiana already has shelled out $2,831,532.99 in legal fees to the ACLU since 2011, including $302,889.87 during the 2017 budget year, $668,385.13 in 2016, and $433,675.92 in 2015.

"Federal law allows judges to require the government to pay a plaintiff's legal fees in some civil rights cases as an incentive to challenge potentially unconstitutional statutes, while also deterring frivolous lawsuits, since only successful litigants are eligible for payment.

"In recent years, the Indiana ACLU has been successful getting, in particular, abortion restrictions enacted by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and the state's Republican governors struck down in federal court.

"The ACLU also prevailed last year on behalf of Exodus Refugee Immigration Inc., when then-Gov. Mike Pence, now vice president of the United States, attempted to bar Syrian refugees legally present in the United States from entering Indiana."