In October of 1980, the National Wildlife Federation and two Alaskan communities lost in their bid to obtain an injunction against the Department of the Interior's sale of oil and gas development leases in the Beaufort Sea.¹ Nevertheless, they negotiated with the Department of Justice a stipulation under which they would receive just under $60,000 in attorney fees, pursuant to the attorney fees provisions in the Endangered Species Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. However, several months later, counsel for the government informed the district court that it had changed its mind regarding the stipulation, and moved the court to deny any fees whatsoever to the plaintiffs, reportedly due to a high-level policy decision that fees should be limited to winning parties.

Judge Robinson ruled that plaintiffs were entitled to fees, and that the sums specified in the now-dishonored stipulation seemed to constitute a "modest" but appropriate award.² He made clear that he viewed this as a middle course by noting that plaintiffs could have made a good case for a much larger award, perhaps as much as $200,000. The government, however, failed to take the hint and renewed its opposition, requesting reconsideration of the decision. This time, Judge Robinson was no longer inclined to compromise. After reviewing plaintiff's submissions regarding fees and expenses, he awarded them $230,000, and added insult to injury by criticizing the federal defendants' apparent lack of concern over wasteful government spending.³