The District of Columbia’s public transportation system anticipates spending more than $1 million on outside lawyers to defend its refusal last year to allow the Archdiocese of Washington to purchase and run a Christmas advertisement on buses, according to records obtained by The National Law Journal.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, issued purchase orders authorizing nearly $800,000 in legal fees for the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and nearly $300,000 for Munger, Tolles & Olson.