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VIRGINIA DEPT. OF HEALTH AND HUMAN RESOURCES Ginsburg, J., dissenting
rule, is it not the sort that "the district courts, in their fact-finding expertise, deal with on a regular basis"? Baumgartner v. Harrisburg Housing Auth., 21 F. 3d 541, 548 (CA3 1994). Might not one conclude overall, as Courts of Appeals have suggested, that the catalyst rule "saves judicial resources," Paris v. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 988 F. 2d 236, 240 (CA1 1993), by encouraging "plaintiffs to discontinue litigation after receiving through the defendant's acquiescence the remedy initially sought"? Morris v. West Palm Beach, 194 F. 3d 1203, 1207 (CA11 1999).
The concurring opinion adds another argument against the catalyst rule: That opinion sees the rule as accommodating the "extortionist" who obtains relief because of "greater strength in financial resources, or superiority in media manipulation, rather than superiority in legal merit." Ante, at 617, 618 (emphasis in original). This concern overlooks both the character of the rule and the judicial superintendence Congress ordered for all fee allowances. The catalyst rule was auxiliary to fee-shifting statutes whose primary purpose is "to promote the vigorous enforcement" of the civil rights laws. Christiansburg Garment Co., 434 U. S., at 422. To that end, courts deemed the conduct-altering catalyst that counted to be the substance of the case, not merely the plaintiff's atypically superior financial resources, media ties, or political clout. See supra, at 628. And Congress assigned responsibility for awarding fees not to automatons unable to recognize extortionists, but to judges expected and instructed to exercise "discretion." See supra, at 624-625, n. 1. So viewed, the catalyst rule provided no berth for nuisance suits, see Hooper, 37 F. 3d, at 292, or "thinly disguised forms of extortion," Tyler v. Corner Constr. Corp., 167 F. 3d 1202, 1206 (CA8 1999) (citation omitted).12
12 The concurring opinion notes, correctly, that "[t]here must be a cutoff of seemingly equivalent entitlements to fees—either the failure to file suit in time or the failure to obtain a judgment in time." Ante, at 620 (empha-
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