Smith et al. v. Robinson, Rhode Island Associate Commissioner of Education, et al. (468 U.S. 992)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided July 5, 1984 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 468 U.S. 992 · 104 S. Ct. 3457
- Decided
- July 5, 1984
- Term
- October Term 1983
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Blackmun
- Issue area
- Attorneys
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court. This case presents questions regarding the award of attorney’s fees in a proceeding to secure a “free appropriate public education” for a handicapped child. At various stages in the proceeding, petitioners asserted claims for relief based on state law, on the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA), 84 Stat. 175, as amended, 20 U. S. C. § 1400 et seq., on § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 87 Stat. 394, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 794, and on the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit concluded that because the proceeding, in essence, was one to enforce the provisions of the EHA, a statute that does not provide for the payment of attorney’s fees, petitioners were not entitled to such fees. Smith v. Cumberland School Committee, 703 F. 2d 4 (1983). Petitioners insist that this Court’s decision in Maher v. Gagne, 448 U. S. 122 (1980), compels a different conclusion. I The procedural history of the case is complicated, but it is significant to the resolution of the issues. Petitioner Thomas F. Smith III (Tommy), suffers from cerebral palsy and a variety of physical and emotional handicaps. When this proceeding began in November 1976, Tommy was eight years old. In the preceding December, the Cumberland…
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