In Hughes v. Rowe, 449 U.S. 5, 14 (1980) (per curiam), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a district court should not award attorneys' fees to a prevailing defendant unless the exacting standard of Christiansburg is met: the Section 1983 complaint must be "meritless in the sense that it is groundless or without foundation."
The Petitioner, an inmate of the Illinois State Penitentiary, asked the Court to review an order dismissing his civil rights action against the respondent corrections officers and directing him to pay counsel fees of $400 for services rendered by the Attorney General of Illinois in representing the respondents in that action.
After granting a motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a constitutional violation, the District Court ordered petitioner to show cause why fees of $400 should not be taxed against him under 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, which allows awards to prevailing parties. Because he did not respond to that order, the fee award was entered. A motion to reconsider was later denied on the ground that petitioner's suit was "meritless." The Court of Appeals disposed of the novel question presented by petitioner by affirming the fee award in an unpublished order. The divided U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari and reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals. Justice William Rehnquist would have set the case for oral argument rather than deciding in on the petition.