Harry Blackmun

“ The Report of the House Committee on the Judiciary notes that the high cost of legal assistance and the superior resources and expertise of the Federal Government precluded private parties from challenging or defending against unreasonable governmental action. ”

“ Legal Times, May 14, 1990, p. 2 (quoting remark of Dennis Cook, then INS General Counsel, that "I have been told that some of my offices appeal every adverse decision regardless of the merits, . . . [and] that others refuse to have stipulations") ; Note, Applying the Equal Access to Justice Act to Asylum Hearings, 97 Yale L.J. 1459, 1471 (1988) (describing an INS pattern of "vigorous opposition to adjudicated asylum claims, often irrespective of the merits") .
Finally, the stakes for the alien involved in deportation proceedings-particularly in asylum cases-are enormous. ”

“ Fee awards were intended to address this problem: "When there is an opportunity to recover costs," the Committee noted, "a party does not have to choose between acquiescing to an unreasonable Government order or prevailing to his financial detriment." ”

“ The Court today accepts this contention, relying on the purportedly "plain" meaning of the statute and the canon that waivers of sovereign immunity are to be construed strictly.
I do not find the meaning of the relevant EAJA provisions "plain," nor do I agree that the Court's canon is applicable to the EAJA. In my view, deportation proceedings exemplify the kind of adjudications for which Congress authorized fee awards: The alien's stake in the proceeding is enormous (sometimes life or death in the asylum context) ”