Two weeks after Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway (D) refused to defend Kentucky's gay marriage ban, the state's top lawyer offered more insight on how he came to that decision.
Conway sat down with HuffPost Live on Wednesday, explaining that when the Kentucky and U.S. constitutions "were in conflict," he had to act in favor of the U.S. Constitution as "the ultimate law of the land."
"I felt like that from a fiscal responsibility standpoint, I didn't need to be wasting taxpayer resources in a lawsuit that we weren't going to win or in an appeal that we weren't going to win," Conway said. "For the sake of my daughter's view on my public service in the future, I wanted to be on the right side of history."
Back on Feb. 27, a federal judge ordered officials in Kentucky to immediately recognize same-sex marriages from other states and countries. That ruling followed the judge's Feb. 12 edict to overturn the state's overall gay marriage ban.
On March 4, Conway announced at a news conference that he would not appeal the judge's Feb. 27 order on other states and countries, saying he "would be defending discrimination" by doing so. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) felt differently, deciding the same day that he would appeal with outside counsel, warning of "legal chaos."
"He and I just came to two very different places," Conway added Wednesday, referring to Beshear.
Watch the full clip above.
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