Opinion ID: 502245
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Is the Germaneness Requirement Satisfied Here?

Text: 56 In light of the foregoing analysis, we have little difficulty concluding that challenging hunting on wildlife refuges is germane to the Humane Society's purposes. The plethora of affidavits submitted by the Society on behalf of its members demonstrate that the injuries alleged by the Society are neither manufactured ones nor unreflective of the membership of the organization. Nor can it be seriously claimed that the Humane Society's goal of protecting animals and assuring their humane treatment is so far removed from the goals of this lawsuit to strip it of the special expertise that the Supreme Court has cited as a primary advantage of associational lawsuits. 24 57 In concluding that the Humane Society's complaint foundered on the germaneness prong of the Hunt test, the district court was apparently misled by its characterization of the Society's members' injuries as recreational. Adopting the more apt characterization--that the alleged injury is to members' aesthetic interest in viewing live animals and birds--makes the pertinence of the Society's claim to its humanitarian goals apparent. Both the Society and this lawsuit, quite simply, have as their goal keeping animals and birds alive and well. 58 It is surely true that the Humane Society makes no specific reference in its certificate of incorporation to advancing its members' interest in viewing animals. Brock 's germaneness prong inquiry ended with its finding that the UAW's statement of purpose included those goals sought to be vindicated by the litigation in question. Yet the Court nowhere has suggested that mention of a given purpose in an organization's organic papers is talismanic or, indeed, anything more than strong evidence of purpose. In any event, we regard it as reasonable to consider, as an unstated but obvious side goal of preserving animal life, permitting enhanced human appreciation of other living things. Numerous member affidavits submitted by the Humane Society testify to this dual goal. 25 See also Animal Welfare Institute v. Kreps, 561 F.2d 1002, 1007 (D.C.Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1013, 98 S.Ct. 726, 54 L.Ed.2d 756 (1978) (Where an act is expressly motivated by considerations of humaneness toward animals, who are uniquely incapable of defending their own interests, it strikes us as eminently logical to allow groups specifically concerned with animal welfare to invoke the aid of the courts in enforcing the statute.). 59 Moreover, despite the absence of an explicit reference to aesthetic interests in the Society's certification of incorporation, that document contains a separate provision underscoring the harmony between the goals of this lawsuit and the animal-protective goals of the Society. Immediately after enumerating its purposes, see note 9, supra, the certificate authorizes the group's directors and officers to do all such acts as are necessary or convenient to the attainment of the objects and purposes herein set forth, and to the same extent and as fully as any natural person might or could do. J.A. 227. Not unlike the necessary and proper clause in the U.S. Constitution, the clause would appear to legitimate otherwise unenumerated activities when necessary to further previously identified goals. See McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316, 4 L.Ed. 579 (1819). Because the objects of the Humane Society's solicitude of course have no standing on their own, we believe a reasonable reading of the Society's necessary or convenient clause, in light of the Society's goal of preserving animal life, authorizes as consistent with, and surely germane to, the Society's purposes litigation on behalf of such animals. 26 60 For these reasons, we conclude that this lawsuit challenging the revivification of hunting on wildlife refuges is germane to the purposes of the Humane Society, and therefore conclude that the organization has standing to challenge these practices as a representative of its members. 27