Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-840_6jfm.pdf
Page Number: 40

Cite as:  593 U. S. ____ (2021) 

15 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

U. S., at 89 (quoting Bell v. Hood, 327 U. S. 678, 682 (1946); 
alterations omitted).  Rather, if the challenged action is “al-
legedly unlawful,” that suffices for standing purposes.  Al-
len, 468 U. S., at 751; see also Whitmore, 495 U. S., at 155 
(“Our threshold inquiry into standing in no way depends on
the merits of the petitioner’s contention that particular con-
duct  is  illegal”  (internal  quotation  marks  and  alterations
omitted)). 

C 
The Court’s distortion of the traceability requirement is
bad enough in itself, but there is more.  After imposing an 
obstacle that the States should not have to surmount to es-
tablish standing, the Court turns around and refuses to con-
sider whether the States have cleared that obstacle.  It’s as 
if the Court told the States: “In order to bring your case in 
federal court, you have to pay a filing fee of $100,000, but 
we will not give you a chance to pay that money.”

The Court says that the States cannot establish standing 
unless they show that their injuries are traceable to the in-
dividual mandate, and the States claim that their injuries 
are indeed traceable to the mandate.  Their argument pro-
ceeds in two steps.  First, they contend that the individual 
mandate is unconstitutional because it does not fall within 
any power  granted  to Congress by the Constitution.  Sec-
ond, they argue that costly obligations imposed on them by 
other  provisions  of  the  ACA  cannot  be  severed  from  the 
mandate.  If  both  steps  of  the  States’  argument  that  the 
challenged enforcement actions are unlawful are correct, it
follows that the Government cannot lawfully enforce those
obligations against the States.

There can be no question that this argument is conceptu-
ally sound.  Imagine Statute ABC.  Provision A imposes en-
forceable legal obligations on the plaintiff.  Provision B im-
poses a legal obligation on a different party.  And provision