PROVIDENCE — State Democratic Party Chairman William Lynch is questioning Governor Carcieri’s decision to pay a nationally known conservative lawyer to file a legal brief opposing same-sex marriage.

The governor’s office signed a $15,000 contract with Indiana lawyer James Bopp Jr. to file a friend-of-the-court brief last week with the state Supreme Court, which had invited public comments while deciding whether to grant a divorce to a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts.

The case has drawn national attention as it is believed to be the first time any of the same-sex couples married in the Bay State have sought a divorce in another state.

Bopp, a socially conservative Republican with a practice focused on issues such as gay marriage and abortion, was one of at least two nationally known lawyers to contact the governor’s office about writing the brief, according to, Michael Maynard, a governor’s spokesman.

After Bopp was chosen for the no-bid contract, he spent about two weeks writing the 27-page legal document. He will be paid with as much as $15,000 in taxpayer dollars, though he has yet to submit a bill, Maynard said.

The details of the arrangement were released yesterday shortly after Lynch filed an open records request with the governor’s office regarding Bopp’s work. Lynch asserted that the brief was filed to promote Carcieri’s personal views and should have been paid for with personal money.

“We all know what the governor’s position is on these issues,” Lynch said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate [for him] to use state tax money to advance his own personal opinion on this issue.”

Carcieri, a Republican and a Catholic who has opposed bills to legalize same-sex marriage, argued in the brief (written by Bopp) that Family Court should not recognize the marriage between Margaret R. Chambers and Cassandra B. Ormiston.

“Marriage as a legal union of one man and one woman is clearly the bedrock of Rhode Island family law,” read Carcieri’s brief. “Because of the pervasiveness of this position throughout its family law statutes, Rhode Island has a strong public policy against recognition of any other marriage than that between one man and one woman.”

Carcieri’s office defended Bopp’s role.

The governor “wanted to get someone who had expertise on this issue who could file a brief that would get to the core of the issue. That was Bopp,” Maynard said, adding that the governor’s office checked some area firms and determined that Bopp was the most qualified and that his $15,000 rate was the best price available.

A document signed by the governor’s executive counsel, Andrew Hodgkin, July 17 provides this justification for choosing Bopp: “Highly specialized area, no state employees currently practice in this area.”

Bopp, 59, is a Republican National Committeeman, the general counsel for the National Right to Life Committee, and a former co-chairman for The Federalist Society, a national conservative organization. He has argued six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning five of them. His loss came in North Carolina Right to Life’s unsuccessful argument that nonprofit organizations should be exempt from a ban on corporate contributions to federal candidates.

“He’s as ultra-right-wing conservative as you’re going to get,” Lynch said. “He wouldn’t deny that he’s a hired gun that travels around the country pushing the extreme right wing of the Republican Party.”

Bopp, reached by phone yesterday in Indiana, dismissed Lynch’s characterization.

“I know the Democratic state chairman is adept at personal attacks,” he said. “I’m a lawyer with a national practice that involves campaign finance, election law and representing and being involved in conservative issues across the nation.”

In 33 years of practicing law, Bopp said he has been involved in various legal cases involving conservative issues in more than 40 states.

He is no stranger to Rhode Island politics or Governor Carcieri. Bopp represented the state Republican Party in defending Governor Carcieri against an alleged election-law violation in 2002. That case was ultimately dismissed by Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Fortunato.

Maynard said that Lynch’s complaint is an unnecessary political attack.

“It just sounds like Bill doesn’t want the governor to explain his views because they’re different,” Maynard said.

Meanwhile, the head of the Rhode Island Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, Steven Brown, also chimed in yesterday.

He said it was ironic that the governor “spent $15,000 in tax dollars to complain how same-sex marriage is going to harm children just months after he proposed a budget that was devastating to children in the state.”

“Cutting off all these programs for poor children, but spending money to pay a well-paid lawyer to celebrate the governor’s family values really rubs me the wrong way,” Brown said.

speoples@projo.com