Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club

Even though the Court may regard the practice as “novel, costly, and intuitively unsatisfying,” ante, at 687, n. 8, it is not at all unusual for a government to pay an unsuccessful adversary’s counsel fees; indeed, in the largest category of litigation in which governments engage — criminal litigation— they do so routinely.1 The question presented in this case is whether Congress has authorized any such award in a challenge to rulemaking by the Environmental Protection Agency. Today the Court holds that, no matter how exceptional the circumstances may be, Congress intended such awards to be…