Columbus, OH – On Monday, The Buckeye Institute signed onto an amicus brief in Lackey v. Stinnie, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to protect access to our legal system for all Americans. 

“Congress intended the awarding of attorneys’ fees to create incentives for lawyers to represent clients in cases vindicating important constitutional and statutory rights,” said David C. Tryon, the director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “And the government should not be allowed to evade paying attorneys’ fees by abandoning its claims after a plaintiff wins a preliminary injunction.”

While awarding attorneys’ fees may seem esoteric, clients with limited financial resources bring many cases that defend and promote important constitutional rights. These people are often represented by public-interest law firms, like The Buckeye Institute, that rely on the “fee-shifting” process so they can provide clients with expert legal representation.  

In the brief, The Buckeye Institute and other amici argue that when a preliminary injunction gives a plaintiff concrete, irreversible relief on the merits of a case or if the case becomes moot before final judgment and no further court-ordered assistance is necessary, the plaintiff should—in keeping with court precedent—be awarded attorneys’ fees. To do otherwise creates perverse incentives to continue litigation solely for the defendants to recover fees.  

A broad bipartisan coalition of groups joined The Buckeye Institute on the brief, including the American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, The Goldwater Institute, Institute for Justice, Public Citizen, The Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center, and The Rutherford Institute.

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