Buckhannon Board & Care Home, Inc. v. West Virginia Dept. of Health and Human Resources

Justice Scalia, with whom Justice Thomas joins,

concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court in its entirety, and write to respond at greater length to the contentions of the dissent.

I

“Prevailing party” is not some newfangled legal term invented for use in late-20th-eentury fee-shifting statutes. *611“[B]y the long established practice and universally recognized rule of the common law, in actions at law, the prevailing party is entitled to recover a judgment for costs . . . .” Mansfield, C. & L. M. R. Co. v. Swan, 111 U.S. 379, 387 (1884).

“Costs have usually been allowed to the prevailing party, as…