Opinion ID: 4535302
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The meaning of “vexatious, frivolous, or in

Text: bad faith” The Hyde Amendment applies where the Government’s litigation position “was vexatious, frivolous, or in bad faith.” 18 U.S.C. § 3006A app. (emphasis added). We have taken the Amendment’s use of the disjunctive “or” to mean that each ground must be assessed separately, see Manzo, 712 F.3d at 810–11 (laying out different standards for each), and several of our sister circuits agree, see, e.g., Monson, 636 F.3d at 438–39; United States v. Manchester Farming P’ship, 315 F.3d 1176, 1182 (9th Cir. 2003). While the three grounds meaningfully “overlap,” United States v. Terzakis, 854 F.3d 951, 955, 956 n.3 (7th Cir. 2017), analyzing each on its own helps courts focus only on relevant factors and not on a nebulous sense of government impropriety. 33 When we conduct that analysis on this record and consider the Hyde Amendment case law on frivolousness and bad faith, we conclude Reyes-Romero is not entitled to an award.