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University of Michigan Law School

United States Supreme Court

1992

Social Welfare Law

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Full-Text Articles in Law

What's Standing After Lujan? Of Citizen Suits, "Injuries," And Article Iii, Cass R. Sunstein Nov 1992

What's Standing After Lujan? Of Citizen Suits, "Injuries," And Article Iii, Cass R. Sunstein

Michigan Law Review

In this article, I have two principal goals. The first is to explain why Lujan's invalidation of a congressional grant of standing is a misinterpretation of the Constitution. It is now apparently the law that Article III forbids Congress from granting standing to "citizens" to bring suit. But this view, building on an unfortunate innovation in standing law by Justice William 0. Douglas, is surprisingly novel. It has no support in the text or history of Article III. It is essentially an invention of federal judges, and recent ones at that. Certainly it should not be accepted by judges …