Chutzpah Dep’t: Court Rejects Shelby County Plaintiffs’ Request for $2 Million in Attorney’s Fees

Attorney’s fees are sometimes available when a plaintiff seeks to enforce a federal statute, including when a plaintiff seeks to enforce the Voting Rights Act against a government entity. Shelby County, which got the Supreme Court to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, unbelievably sought over $2 million in attorney’s fees.

You can read the three opinions of the three judges on the Court here, but the result can be explained in one sentence from the majority opinion by Judge Griffith: “We find Shelby County not entitled because its lawsuit did not enforce compliance with the VRA and because Congress did not intend to use fees to encourage the invalidation of the Act’s provisions.”

Judge Tatel concurring: “Although I agree with Judge Griffith that Shelby County is not entitled to recover attorneys’ fees, I find nothing at all ‘difficult’ about the question whether the County is even eligible for fees under section 14(e) of the Voting Rights Act.”

 

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