ST. LOUIS (AP) - A federal judge has awarded $62,000 in legal fees to a southeast Missouri man in a lawsuit over his flag desecration arrest.
U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson last year ruled that Missouri's flag desecration law was unconstitutional, and earlier awarded $7,000 in damages to Frank Snider of Cape Girardeau. He was arrested in 2009 for cutting up an American flag in anger over his inability to find work, and throwing it into the street.
In a ruling Thursday, Jackson ordered the state and the arresting officer to pay $62,000 in legal fees.
A spokeswoman for Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster says the state's defense of the statute sought to give voice to the patriotic sentiment of the law.
Snider was represented by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union.