The city of Louisville has agreed to pay $800,000 in legal fees to a Kentucky photographer who challenged the city’s LGBTQ nondiscrimination law.
Chelsey Nelson filed her lawsuit in 2019 claiming the Louisville ordinance restricted her ability to publicly state she would not photograph same-sex weddings, which she doesn’t believe in.
The lawsuit was a “pre-enforcement challenge” meaning that no same-sex couple had even attempted to hire the photographer.
The city asked the court to throw out her case because the law hadn’t actually affected her.
From The Advocate:
In September, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton, a Trump appointee, awarded Nelson $1 in damages and found the ordinance unlawfully restricted her ability to publicly state she would not photograph same-sex weddings.
City officials told local media that by reaching the settlement to also pay Nelson’s legal fees, the move ends litigation but leaves the ordinance intact.
The lawsuit relied on the anti-LGBTQ+ ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 303 Creative v. Elenis, in which a Colorado website designer claimed she wanted to expand her wedding business but that a law would require her to serve same-sex couples in violation of her religious beliefs.
Of course, Nelson was represented by the virulently anti-LGBTQ legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. Read more here.
The Alliance Defending Freedom represented Chelsey Nelson, who claimed Louisville ordinance required her to provide services for couples whose love she opposed. https://t.co/v0itXmU5oQ
— The Advocate (@TheAdvocateMag) March 25, 2026
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