On November 5, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily reversed both the 4th circuit, and a U.S. District Court in South Carolina, and ruled that Steve Lefemine is entitled to collect attorneys’ fees from the county government of Greenwood County, South Carolina. Here is the 4-page decision in Lefemine v Wideman, 12-168. In 2008, Lefemine had filed a lawsuit, alleging that his freedom of speech was being violated because the sheriff of Greenwood County had told him that he could not demonstrate on public sidewalks with signs showing pictures of aborted fetuses. He won the case, and the U.S. District Court issued declaratory relief, preventing him from being arrested in the future. But the U.S. District Court refused to award attorneys fees to Lefemine.

The U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th circuit, also refused to award attorneys fees to Lefemine, but on November 5, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the lower courts on the attorneys fees matter and said the county must pay attorneys’ fees to Lefemine, under the federal law passed in 1976 that permits plaintiffs to recover attorneys’ fees from governments, when governments violate Civil Rights, including First Amendment rights.

Lefemine was a Constitution Party nominee for Congress or state legislature in 2000, 2001 (a special election), 2002, and 2004. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.