Opinion ID: 2787870
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: concrete and particularized and (b) actual or

Text: imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant; and (3) it is likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision. Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs. (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 180-81 (2000). Relying on our decision in Marshall v. Meadows, 105 F.3d 904, 906 (4th Cir. 1997), the 12 The dismissal of a claim for lack of standing to sue is typically sought by way of Rule 12(b)(1) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which provides for dismissal for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. In this instance, the district court’s judgment order related that “Summary Judgment is granted on behalf of [the Appellees].” See Greenville Cnty. Republican Party Exec. Comm. v. Way, No. 6:10-cv-01407 (D.S.C. Sept. 6, 2013), ECF No. 182. The Second Opinion, on the other hand, specified that the action was dismissed for lack of standing. Notwithstanding this apparent discrepancy, we are satisfied that the disposition of the district court was a dismissal for lack of standing to sue. Indeed, there are no contentions to the contrary. 14 district court determined that the open primary system was not traceable to the Committee’s alleged freedom of association injury. That injury, rather, was traceable solely to the State Party’s decision to utilize the open primary system of selecting its nominees for public office. The court concluded that, because the State Party was not a party-defendant, the Committee could not satisfy the second, traceability prong of the standing analysis. The court also ruled that the Committee was unable to satisfy the third prong of that analysis, in that its alleged injury was not redressable. As the court explained, it could not, as a matter of law, compel the State Party to adopt and utilize any particular partisan nomination procedure. The Second Opinion also rejected Mitchell’s as-applied equal protection challenge to the open primary system for lack of standing to sue. In so ruling, the district court reasoned that Mitchell’s alleged injuries were traceable solely to the City’s decision to conduct partisan municipal elections. Accordingly, the absence of the City as a party-defendant deprived Mitchell of standing to pursue an equal protection claim. Finally, the Second Opinion rejected — also for lack of standing to sue — the Committee’s as-applied freedom of association and equal protection challenges to the supermajority requirement. In that regard, the district court explained that 15 the State Party — as the entity tasked with selecting the procedure by which the State Party selects its nominees for office in South Carolina — was the only entity entitled to challenge the constitutionality of the supermajority requirement. The State Party, however, had abandoned the litigation two months earlier, in June 2013, and was no longer a party-plaintiff. The court therefore dismissed the Appellants’ as-applied constitutional challenges for lack of standing to sue. Judgment was entered in favor of the Appellees on September 6, 2013. The Appellants timely noticed this appeal, and we possess jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.