Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 68

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

7 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

B 
A brief historical examination of Article III’s case-or-con-
troversy  requirement  confirms  what  our  recent  decisions 
suggest: The rule against third-party standing is constitu-
tional,  not  prudential.  The  judicial  power  is  limited  to 
“ ‘ “cases and controversies of the sort traditionally amena-
ble to, and resolved by, the judicial process.” ’ ”  Id., at ___ 
(THOMAS,  J.,  concurring)  (slip  op.,  at  1)  (quoting  Vermont 
Agency of Natural Resources v. United States ex rel. Stevens, 
529  U. S.  765,  774  (2000));  see  also  Muskrat  v.  United 
States, 219 U. S. 346, 356–357 (1911).  Thus, to ascertain 
the  scope  of  Article  III’s  case-or-controversy  requirement,
“we must ‘refer directly to the traditional, fundamental lim-
itations upon the powers of common-law courts.’ ”  Spokeo, 
supra, at ___ (THOMAS, J., concurring) (slip op., at 2) (quot-
ing Honig v. Doe, 484 U. S. 305, 340 (1988) (Scalia, J., dis-
senting)).  “One focus” of these traditional limitations was 
“on the particular parties before the court, and whether the 
rights that they [were] invoking [were] really theirs to con-
trol.”  Woolhandler & Nelson, Does History Defeat Standing 
Doctrine? 102 Mich. L. Rev. 689, 732 (2004).  An examina-
tion  of  these  limitations  reveals  that  a  plaintiff  could  not 
establish  a  case  or  controversy  by  asserting  the  constitu-
tional rights of others.

The limitations imposed on suits at common law varied
based on the type of right the plaintiff sought to vindicate. 
Spokeo, 578 U. S., at ___ (THOMAS, J., concurring) (slip op., 
at 2).  The rights adjudicated by common-law courts gener-
ally fell into one of two categories: public or private.  Public 
rights  are  those  “owed ‘to  the  whole  community  . . .  in  its 
social aggregate capacity.’ ”  Id., at ___ (slip op., at 3) (quot-
ing 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *5).  Private rights, on
the other hand, are those “ ‘belonging to individuals, consid-
ered  as  individuals.’ ”  Spokeo,  supra,  at  ___  (THOMAS,  J., 
concurring) (slip op., at 2) (quoting 3 Blackstone, Commen-
taries *2).