The underlying dispute began when Southern Utah Drag Stars, LLC, and performer Mitski Avalox sued the City of St. George and several of its council members and officials, alleging that the city's denial of a special-event permit violated their First Amendment rights. The plaintiffs obtained a preliminary injunction, held their event at a city park, and eventually reached a settlement that required the city to make a monetary payment, repeal and amend the challenged ordinances, and issue a public apology acknowledging that the permit denial violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights.
The settlement agreement itself designated the plaintiffs as the prevailing party entitled to recover reasonable attorneys' fees and costs under 42 U.S.C. § 1988, the federal civil-rights fee-shifting statute. The city then argued that a recent Supreme Court decision, Lackey v. Stinnie, 604 U.S. 192 (2025), barred the plaintiffs from qualifying as prevailing parties. In Lackey, the Supreme Court held that a preliminary injunction alone does not render a plaintiff a prevailing party because it provides only temporary relief rather than enduring resolution on the merits.
District Judge David Nuffer held that Lackey did not help the city. The settlement agreement — not the preliminary injunction — was the operative basis for the prevailing-party designation, and the city had contractually agreed to that designation. The court held that the settlement's plain language precluded the city from relitigating the question. Going further, Judge Nuffer reasoned that Lackey actually supported the plaintiffs' position: the settlement, culminating in a dismissal with prejudice, would conclusively resolve the claims and materially alter the legal relationship between the parties — precisely the kind of enduring relief Lackey requires.
On the fee amount, the city argued that the plaintiffs' requested rates of $300 to $400 per hour for licensed counsel were excessive compared to the city's own counsel's rate of $285 per hour, and that 1,111.80 billed hours reflected duplication, vague entries, and improper block billing. The court rejected each objection. The rates charged by Jenner & Block and the ACLU of Utah — both described in the opinion as highly reputable and well-known nationally for their legal work in civil rights litigation — were consistent with prevailing local market rates, and the city's own lower rate did not set the community benchmark. On hours, the court found that counsel had already exercised substantial billing judgment, cutting 245.75 hours and excluding the work of multiple attorneys and paralegals entirely, and that the complexity of the litigation, including the city's own repeated dispositive motions and mid-litigation ordinance changes, reasonably drove the hours billed.
The court awarded the full $350,216.50 in attorneys' fees and $902.00 in costs, and directed the parties to file the documents necessary to close the case within 28 days.