Stinnie v. Holcomb

After the Legal Aid Justice Center won a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of an unconstitutional Virginia statute that automatically revoked the driver’s license of any person who was unable to pay court debt, the state then repealed the statute, mooting the litigation and avoiding the payment of any attorneys’ fees. FIRE has joined several civil liberties and civil rights groups on an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, arguing that litigants who prevail on preliminary injunction are entitled to recover attorneys’ fees under federal civil rights law. The attorneys’ fee awards obtained by successful litigants are crucial to FIRE’s ability to represent students and faculty, vindicate their rights, and deter and remedy unconstitutional government actions.

Though the Fourth Circuit initially affirmed the decision to withhold attorneys’ fees from litigants who prevail on a preliminary injunction in a June 2022 opinion, the entire Fourth Circuit has agreed to reconsider that decision en banc in January 2023. And in August 2023, the Fourth Circuit granted rehearing en banc and reversed, holding that “the plaintiffs here ‘prevailed’ in every sense needed to make them eligible for a fee award.”