Cite as: 532 U. S. 598 (2001)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
were the result, at least in part, of plaintiff's litigation.") (citing, inter alia, Black Hills Alliance v. Regional Forester, 526 F. Supp. 257 (SD 1981)).
In short, there is substantial support, both old and new, federal and state, for a costs award, "in [the court's] discretion," supra, at 625, n. 1, to the plaintiff whose suit prompts the defendant to provide the relief plaintiff seeks.
C
Recognizing that no practice set in stone, statute, rule, or precedent, see infra, at 643, dictates the proper construction of modern civil rights fee-shifting prescriptions, I would "assume . . . that Congress intends the words in its enactments to carry 'their ordinary, contemporary, common meaning.' " Pioneer, 507 U. S., at 388 (defining "excusable neglect") (quoting Perrin v. United States, 444 U. S. 37, 42 (1979) (defining "bribery")); see also, e. g., Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc., 527 U. S. 471, 491 (1999) (defining "substantially" in light of ordinary usage); Rutledge v. United States, 517 U. S. 292, 299-300, n. 10 (1996) (similarly defining "in concert"). In everyday use, "prevail" means "gain victory by virtue of strength or superiority: win mastery: triumph." Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1797 (1976). There are undoubtedly situations in which an individual's goal is to obtain approval of a judge, and in those situations, one cannot "prevail" short of a judge's formal declaration. In a piano competition or a figure skating contest, for example, the person who prevails is the person declared winner by the judges. However, where the ultimate goal is not an arbiter's approval, but a favorable alteration of actual circumstances, a formal declaration is not essential. Western democracies, for instance, "prevailed" in the Cold War even though the Soviet Union never formally surrendered. Among television viewers, John F. Kennedy "prevailed" in the first debate with Richard M. Nixon during the 1960 Presidential contest, even though moderator Howard K. Smith
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