LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge has awarded attorneys for a group of stores in Kentucky $208,000 in fees in an ongoing battle over the state's ban on grocery stores, gas stations and other retailers selling wine and liquor.

U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II also granted attorneys for Maxwell's Pic-Pac, and the Food with Wine Coalition $11,000 in costs related to the litigation. Heyburn ruled in August that Kentucky's ban on the sales by stores was unconstitutional because it violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

The judge allowed the ban to remain in place while the case is appealed. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has been asked to hear the case.