The
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...
has interpreted the Case or Controversy Clause of
Article III of the United States Constitution (found in Art. III, Section 2, Clause 1) as embodying two distinct limitations on exercise of
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incom ...
: a bar on the issuance of
advisory opinions, and a requirement that parties must have
standing.
First, the Court has held that the clause identifies the scope of matters which a federal court can and cannot consider as a case (i.e., it distinguishes between lawsuits within and beyond the institutional competence of the federal judiciary), and limits federal
judicial power only to such lawsuits as the court is competent to hear.
For example, the Court has determined that this clause prohibits the issuance of advisory opinions (in which no actual issue exists but an opinion is sought), and claims where the appellant stands to gain only in a generalized sense (i.e. no more or less than people at large), and allows only the adjudication of claims where (1) the plaintiff has actually and personally suffered injury or harm "in fact", (2) the injury or harm suffered by the plaintiff is fairly traceable to the defendant's actions and (3) the injury or harm would be capable of redress by the court.
As with all parts of the law, there are exceptions. One of the most significant deals with free speech and free expression cases involving the
First Amendment where a party suing over a restriction on freedom of speech issues can argue the unconstitutionality of a statute restricting certain types of speech or expression, even where the restriction might not directly affect them, such as a bookseller or video game dealer may argue that a restriction on some media restricts their customer's ability to choose various works and the restrictions could have a "
chilling effect" on some publishers who might not release some works that would be affected by the law. Other than this, generally, there are usually no exceptions to the standing issue at the Federal level.
Secondly, the Court has interpreted the Clause as limiting Congress's ability to confer federal courts jurisdiction. It establishes an outer limit of the types of matters within which Congress may constitutionally confer jurisdiction. Historically, the Court has not interpreted this Clause to limit
Congressional power to ''restrict'' the jurisdiction of the federal courts.
The delicate phrasing of the Clause and the ambiguity of the terms therein has inspired frequent academic debate. Though the Supreme Court has given much attention to the legal issues arising from this provision of the Constitution, many problematic issues remain unresolved. Many critics argue that the
standing requirements imposed by the Case or Controversy Clause allow judges to push off difficult issues, ponder the merits of a case before parties had fair opportunity to litigate, and walk away from the responsibility of applying laws that judges may find distasteful.
Text
Article III, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution states:
This clause, in addition to setting out the scope of the jurisdiction of the federal judiciary, prohibits courts from issuing
advisory opinions, or from hearing cases that are either
unripe, meaning that the controversy has not arisen yet, or
moot, meaning that the controversy has already been resolved.
History of legal application
The earliest expression by the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...
of adherence to this requirement came during the
presidency
A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by ...
of
George Washington. Washington sent a letter to the Court asking for their approval should he choose to seek advice from them from time to time on matters that might not come before the Court in a timely manner. Chief Justice
John Jay
John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the fir ...
wrote in his response that, although the members of the Court had great confidence in the ability of the president to receive appropriate advice from his executive officers, the Court itself was constitutionally bound not to go beyond its role as an arbiter of judicial questions.
The most famous case setting forth the parameters of this requirement is ''
Muskrat v. United States'', 219 U.S. 346 (1911), in which the Court held that when Congress paid the legal bills for both the
plaintiff
A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...
s and the
defendant
In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case.
Terminology varies from one juris ...
(in this case the
U.S. Treasury department, by designation), then there was no real controversy between the parties, and a judgment of the Court would be the equivalent of an advisory opinion.
The boundaries of the "case and controversy" clause are open to dispute. For instance, the Court has held that where the controversy between parties has ceased because of a change in facts, it has no jurisdiction. However, where the case or controversy ceases—or, in legal terms, is "mooted"—after a case is filed, the Court may render a decision in the interest of justice. In ''
Roe v. Wade'', for instance, the Court applied the mootness exception for cases "capable of repetition, yet evading review." Justice
Harry Blackmun
Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. Appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon, Blac ...
wrote that due to the natural limitation of the human gestation period, issues concerning pregnancy will always come to term before the appellate process is complete. ''
Roe v. Wade'' 410 U.S. 113 (1973). Therefore, the Supreme Court could rule on the constitutionality of an abortion law despite the issue being
moot at the time of adjudication.
Interpretation
The U.S. Supreme Court observed in ''
DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno
''DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno'', 547 U.S. 332 (2006), is a United States Supreme Court case involving the standing of taxpayers to challenge state tax laws in federal court. The Court unanimously ruled that state taxpayers did not have standi ...
'' (2006): "No principle is more fundamental to the judiciary’s proper role in our system of government than the constitutional limitation of federal-court jurisdiction to actual cases or controversies.” The case-or-controversy requirement of Article III of the constitution requires plaintiffs to establish their standing to sue. Article III standing law is built on separation-of-powers principles. Its purpose is to prevent the judicial process from being used to usurp the powers of the legislative and executive branch of the U.S. federal government. Article III standing requires an injury that is “concrete, particularized and actual or imminent; fairly traceable to the challenged action and redressable by a favorable ruling.”
Generally, the clause is taken to mean that a vague, broad injury is not grounds for a federal lawsuit. Relevant cases:
: ''
Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife
''Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife'', 504 U.S. 555 (1992), was a landmark Supreme Court of the United States decision, handed down on June 12, 1992, that heightened standing requirements under Article III of the United States Constitution. It is "o ...
'' ("
personraising only a generally available grievance about government—claiming only harm to his and every citizen’s interest in proper application of the Constitution and laws, and seeking relief that no more directly and tangibly benefits him than it does the public at large—does not state an Article III case or controversy."), ''
Allen v. Wright
''Allen v. Wright'', 468 U.S. 737 (1984), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court case that determined that citizens do not have standing (law), standing to sue a federal government agency based on the influence that ...
'' ("an asserted right to have the Government act in accordance with law is not sufficient, standing alone, to confer jurisdiction on a federal court"), ''
Diamond v. Charles
''Diamond v. Charles'', 476 U.S. 54 (1986), was a United States Supreme Court case that determined that citizens do not have Article III standing to challenge the constitutionality of a state statute in federal court unless they possess a "direct ...
'' (Article III standing "is not to be placed in the hands of ‘concerned bystanders,’ for use as a ‘vehicle for the vindication of value interests.’"), ''
Arizonans for Official English
''Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona'', 520 U.S. 43 (1996), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court decision that held that Article Three of the United States Constitution, Article III required Standing (law), ...
'' ("Nor has this Court ever identified initiative proponents as Article-III-qualified defenders of the measures they advocated."), ''
Karcher v. May'' (Citizens who had standing in their 'public official' roles did not retain standing once they left public office), ''
Hollingsworth v. Perry
''Hollingsworth v. Perry'' was a series of United States federal court cases that re-legalized same-sex marriage in the state of California. The case began in 2009 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which found that ...
'' ("We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to. We decline to do so for the first time here"), and numerous other cases.
The clause does not forbid individual States from granting standing to such parties; it only mandates that federal courts may not do so:
[Hollingsworth v. Perry, 570 U.S. (2013)]
: "The Court does not question
he State'ssovereign right to maintain an initiative process, or the right of initiative proponents to defend their initiatives in
tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
courts. But standing in federal court is a question of federal law, not state law. No matter its reasons, the fact that a State thinks a private party should have standing to seek relief for a generalized grievance cannot override this Court’s settled law to the contrary. Article III’s requirement that a party invoking the jurisdiction of a federal court seek relief for a personal, particularized injury serves vital interests going to the role of the Judiciary in the federal system of separated powers. States cannot alter that role simply by issuing to private parties who otherwise lack standing a ticket to the federal courthouse." (''
Hollingsworth v. Perry
''Hollingsworth v. Perry'' was a series of United States federal court cases that re-legalized same-sex marriage in the state of California. The case began in 2009 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which found that ...
'')
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Case Or Controversy Clause
Article Three of the United States Constitution
Clauses of the United States Constitution
United States civil procedure