Athens' 2022 Independence Day fireworks are officially off the legal hot seat, but the lawyers who tried to sue over the show are the ones feeling the burn.
Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of multiple lawsuits filed against the City of Athens and several city officials over the city’s 2022 Independence Day fireworks. On top of upholding the dismissals, the panel slapped two of the plaintiff’s appellate lawyers with heavy sanctions for appellate briefs that included fabricated citations and misstatements, effectively shifting the immediate financial burden of the appeals away from the city and onto the sanctioned attorneys.
The consolidated appeals grew out of litigation filed by Glenn Whiting after the 2022 fireworks show; the cases were docketed in the Sixth Circuit as Nos. 24‑5918/5919 and 25‑5424. The court docket and filings are publicly accessible through Justia.
What the court ordered
Invoking Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 38 and its inherent authority, the panel ordered lawyers Van R. Irion and Russ Egli to jointly and severally reimburse the appellees for reasonable attorneys’ fees on appeal, pay double costs under 28 U.S.C. § 1920, and each pay $15,000 into the court's registry as punitive sanctions. The opinion also directed the appellees to file an accounting of their costs and attorneys’ fees within seven days and instructed the clerk to send a copy of the order to the chief judge for possible disciplinary review, according to the Sixth Circuit.
Briefing errors and show-cause
The panel said the appellate briefing "repeatedly misrepresented the record, cited non‑existent cases," and identified more than two dozen problematic citations, according to the Sixth Circuit. In response to those issues, the court issued a show-cause order directing the lawyers to produce copies of the authorities they had cited, identify who wrote the briefs, and disclose whether generative AI was used. The opinion states that the lawyers' responses to that order were inadequate.
Local response
Mayor Larry Eaton issued a statement on behalf of the City of Athens about the rulings, posting the message to the city's official Facebook page. The statement is available on the city's Facebook.
Case background
Whiting's complaints were litigated in federal court in Knoxville before Judge Travis R. McDonough. Those district court filings and orders supply the procedural history behind the appeals. Court records in the Eastern District of Tennessee reflect a lengthy docket of motions and sanctions activity tied to Whiting's challenges to city actions, as shown in the materials available from GovInfo.
Why it matters
The ruling leaves Athens largely free from further appellate exposure in these disputes and doubles as a sharp warning to attorneys who rely on fabricated authorities or sloppy briefing. Local officials have cast the decision as the close of a costly chapter for the city, while the panel's referral for potential disciplinary review signals that courts are fully prepared to punish counsel who mislead appellate tribunals.
