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Page Number: 7

4 

VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES v. BETHUNE-HILL 

Opinion of the Court 

invoking  a  court’s  jurisdiction,  it  was  not  previously  in-
cumbent on the House to demonstrate its standing.  That 
situation  changed  when  the  House  alone  endeavored  to 
appeal from the District Court’s order holding 11 districts 
unconstitutional,  thereby  seeking  to  invoke  this  Court’s 
jurisdiction.    As  the  Court  has  repeatedly  recognized,  to 
appeal  a  decision  that  the  primary  party  does  not  chal-
lenge,  an  intervenor  must  independently  demonstrate 
standing.    Wittman,  578  U. S.  ___;  Diamond  v.  Charles, 
476  U. S.  54  (1986).    We  find  unconvincing  the  House’s 
arguments  that  it  has  standing,  either  to  represent  the 
State’s interests or in its own right. 

II 
A 
  The  House  urges  first  that  it  has  standing to represent 
the  State’s  interests.    Of  course,  “a  State  has  standing  to 
defend the constitutionality of its statute.”  Id., at 62.  No 
doubt, then, the State itself could press this appeal.  And, 
as this Court has held, “a State must be able to designate 
agents  to  represent  it  in  federal  court.”    Hollingsworth, 
570  U. S.,  at  710.    So  if  the  State  had  designated  the 
House  to  represent  its  interests,  and  if  the  House  had  in 
fact  carried  out  that  mission,  we  would  agree  that  the 
House could stand in for the State.  Neither precondition, 
however, is met here. 
  To  begin  with,  the  House  has  not  identified  any  legal 
basis  for  its  claimed  authority  to  litigate  on  the  State’s 
behalf.    Authority  and  responsibility  for  representing  the 
State’s interests in civil litigation, Virginia law prescribes, 
rest exclusively with the State’s Attorney General: 

“All  legal  service  in  civil  matters  for  the  Common-
wealth, the Governor, and every state department, in-
stitution, division, commission, board, bureau, agency, 
entity,  official,  court,  or  judge  . . .  shall  be  rendered 
and  performed  by  the  Attorney  General,  except  as