Texas Business Owners Lose Bid for Fees Over Israel Boycott Law

Five Texas business owners aren’t entitled to $342,000 in legal fees stemming from their challenge to a state law barring government contracts for companies that boycott Israel, a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled Wednesday.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned the fee award, finding that under the circumstances of the case, the lawsuit’s success in obtaining a short-lived injunction didn’t make the business owners “prevailing parties” under federal civil rights law.

Judge Edith H. Jones, writing for the appeals court, noted that the preliminary injunction against the statute was issued after Texas lawmakers began ...