Supreme Court awards legal fees to harassed pro-life activists
The Chicago Tribune reports,
The Supreme Court on Monday said anti-abortion protesters may be entitled to recover attorneys’ fees from a South Carolina sheriff’s office that had stopped them from displaying graphic signs showing aborted fetuses at demonstrations.
In its first decision since the 2012-2013 term officially began last month, the court reversed a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against Steven Lefemine and Columbia Christians for Life, which had sought to recover the fees. . . .
The 4th Circuit later upheld the fee denial, saying the permanent injunction did not make Lefemine a “prevailing party.”
But in its unsigned decision, the Supreme Court said he was because the injunction had changed police behavior in a way that directly benefited him. . . .
Steven Fitschen, a lawyer for Lefemine, said attorneys’ fees in the case may reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that other protesters should welcome the decision.
“Protesters of all stripes, whose civil rights were violated by law enforcement, would have been at risk of losing fee awards,” Fitschen said in a phone interview.
See also the article from LifeNews.com.