630
VIRGINIA DEPT. OF HEALTH AND HUMAN RESOURCES Ginsburg, J., dissenting
on 42 U. S. C. § 1988 unmodified, see supra, at 624-625, n. 1, do not similarly staple fee awards to "court ordered relief." Their very terms do not foreclose a catalyst theory.
B
It is altogether true, as the concurring opinion points out, ante, at 610-611, that litigation costs other than attorney's fees traditionally have been allowed to the "prevailing party," and that a judgment winner ordinarily fits that description. It is not true, however, that precedent on costs calls for the judgment requirement the Court ironly adopts today for attorney's fees. Indeed, the first decision cited in the concurring opinion, Mansfield, C. & L. M. R. Co. v. Swan, 111 U. S. 379 (1884), see ante, at 611, tugs against the restrictive rule today's decision installs.
In Mansfield, plaintiffs commenced a contract action in state court. Over plaintiffs' objections, defendants successfully removed the suit to federal court. Plaintiffs prevailed on the merits there, and defendants obtained review here. See 111 U. S., at 380-381. This Court determined, on its own motion, that federal subject-matter jurisdiction was absent from the start. Based on that determination, the Court reversed the lower court's judgment for plaintiffs. Worse than entering and leaving this Courthouse equally "empty-handed," ante, at 614 (concurring opinion), the plaintiffs in Mansfield were stripped of the judgment they had won, including the "judicial finding . . . of the merits" in their favor, ante, at 613 (concurring opinion). The Mansfield plaintiffs did, however, achieve this small consolation: The Court awarded them costs here as well as below. Recognizing that defendants had "prevail[ed]" in a "formal and nominal sense," the Mansfield Court nonetheless concluded that "[i]n a true and proper sense" defendants were "the losing and not the prevailing party." 111 U. S., at 388.
While Mansfield casts doubt on the present majority's "formal and nominal" approach, that decision does not con-
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