Two southern Kentucky counties where officials posted copies of the Ten Commandments in courthouses have been ordered by a federal judge to pay more than $400,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union and citizens who successfully challenged the displays.

US district judge Jennifer B Coffman ordered Pulaski and McCreary counties to pay $393,798 in attorneys' fees and $8,133 in expenses to the ACLU of Kentucky and citizens.

Coffman's decision is the latest ruling in a court fight that began a decade ago. The counties don't have to pay immediately because aspects of the case are still being appealed. But if the counties ultimately lose, taxpayers could be on the hook for the bill if insurance doesn't cover it.

McCreary county judge-executive Blaine Phillips said he doesn't think the county's insurance policy would cover its share of the payment.

Phillips said McCreary county might seek donations if it has to split the cost of the Ten Commandments fight with Pulaski county. He was reluctant to even mention taxpayer dollars as a possible source for the payment. "That'll be a hard pill to swallow" if the county has to pay, Phillips said.

McCreary county is one of the state's poorest, and is hard-pressed at times to fund police protection and other services. Phillips said there's been no discussion on how to share the bill with Pulaski county if that becomes necessary.

But Mathew Staver, who represents the counties, said he thinks their insurance companies would cover the judgement if the counties someday have to pay.

He said if the counties win the case on appeal, they wouldn't have to pay the ACLU. That is the goal, said Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group.

David A Friedman, lead attorney for the ACLU, agreed that the counties wouldn't have to pay all $400,000 if they win their appeal. However, the ACLU and the citizens who filed the lawsuit would still be entitled to a significant fee award, Friedman said.

The counties argued to Coffman that the fee request from the ACLU was unreasonable. The attorneys spent too much time on some tasks such as legal research, billed for some things they shouldn't have and sought fees that were too high, the counties argued.

Coffman disagreed on every point, ruling that the ACLU fee request was reasonable for a complex case that required 1,300 hours of work over 10 years.

She also noted that the counties' own actions ran up the legal bill in the case. The counties started the court battle by posting standalone copies of the Ten Commandments that were "indisputably unconstitutional" at the time, then fought all the way to the US supreme court to defend their actions, Coffman said.

"The defendants 'cannot litigate tenaciously and then be heard to complain about the time necessarily spent ... in response,'" Coffman wrote, citing an earlier court opinion.