628
VIRGINIA DEPT. OF HEALTH AND HUMAN RESOURCES Ginsburg, J., dissenting
quotation marks and citation omitted). Plaintiff finally had to establish that her suit was a "substantial" or "significant" cause of defendant's action providing relief. Williams v. Leatherbury, 672 F. 2d 549, 551 (CA5 1982). In some Circuits, to make this causation showing, plaintiff had to satisfy the trial court that the suit achieved results "by threat of victory," not "by dint of nuisance and threat of expense." Marbley, 57 F. 3d, at 234-235; see also Hooper v. Demco, Inc., 37 F. 3d 287, 293 (CA7 1994) (to render plaintiff "prevailing party," suit "must have prompted the defendant . . . to act or cease its behavior based on the strength of the case, not 'wholly gratuitously' "). One who crossed these three thresholds would be recognized as a "prevailing party" to whom the district court, "in its discretion," supra, at 624- 625, n. 1, could award attorney's fees.
Developed over decades and in legions of federal-court decisions, the catalyst rule and these implementing standards deserve this Court's respect and approbation.
II
A
The Court today detects a "clear meaning" of the term prevailing party, ante, at 610, that has heretofore eluded the large majority of courts construing those words. "Prevailing party," today's opinion announces, means "one who has been awarded some relief by the court," ante, at 603. The Court derives this "clear meaning" principally from Black's Law Dictionary, which defines a "prevailing party," in critical part, as one "in whose favor a judgment is rendered," ibid. (quoting Black's Law Dictionary 1145 (7th ed. 1999)).
One can entirely agree with Black's Law Dictionary that a party "in whose favor a judgment is rendered" prevails, and at the same time resist, as most Courts of Appeals have, any implication that only such a party may prevail. In prior cases, we have not treated Black's Law Dictionary as preclu-
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