Here is an interesting article on SCOTUS blog about the Brown v. EMA decision earlier this term striking down a California law that banned the sale of violent video games to minors: http://www.scotusblog.com/2011/07/a-rare-request-for-fees/
While not directly relevant (yet) to the Vermont Yankee litigation, there has been a lot of chatter in the media and on this blog about attorneys’ fees in civil rights cases, including in the Sorrell v. IMS case striking down Vermont’s data mining law.
As I have previously noted, Entergy is requesting attorneys’ fees in the VY litigation as well. What I found to be of particular note was that the Supreme Court litigation costs exceeded $1 million in the Brown v. EMA case. That doesn’t include any fees for the lower court proceedings.
The theory behind this request for California to pay the fees of the industries’ lawyers is that California continued to press forward a law that was clearly unconstitutional. Not sure that the Court will buy the argument, but it is a case worth watching as the state of Vermont tries to assess in any case when to throw in the towel because the costs of litigation are no longer worth it.
