Opinion ID: 6972211
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Standard for Standing

Text: The question of standing involves a ease’s justiciability under Article III of the Constitution: Whether a particular plaintiff has the right to bring a particular claim in federal court. The Supreme Court articulated the basic test for a plaintiffs standing in Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife: First, the plaintiff must have suffered an “injury in faet”-an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) “actual or imminent, not ‘conjectural’ or ‘hypothetical.’” Second, there must be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of-the injury has to be “fairly ... traee[able] to the challenged action of the defendant, and not ... th[e] result [of] the independent action of some third party not before the court.” Third, it must be “likely,” as opposed to merely “speculative,” that the injury will be “redressed by a favorable decision.” 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992) (citations omitted). This three-part test represents the “irreducible constitutional minimum” for standing. Id. at 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130. The requisite weight of proof for each element of the test is lowered, however, for “procedural standing,” which is the kind of standing claimed by Plaintiffs in this case. See id. at 572 n. 7, 112 S.Ct. 2130. Procedural standing is standing based on a plaintiffs procedural injury. A plaintiff may claim “procedural standing” when, for example, it seeks “to enforce a procedural requirement the disregard of which could impair a concrete interest of [the plaintiffs].” Id. at 572, 112 S.Ct. 2130 (giving as an example “the procedural requirement for an environmental impact statement before a federal facility is constructed next door to [plaintiffs]”). The Supreme Court recognized the lower standards of proof for such procedural standing in a footnote: There is this much truth to the assertion that “procedural rights” are special: The person who has been accorded a procedural right to protect his concrete interests can assert that right without meeting all the normal standards for redressability and immediacy. Thus, under our case law, one living adjacent to the site for proposed construction of a federally licensed dam has standing to challenge the licensing agency’s failure to prepare an environmental impact statement, even though he cannot establish with any certainty that the statement will cause the license to be withheld or altered, and even though the dam will not be completed for many years. Id. at 572 n. 7, 112 S.Ct. 2130. We stated our test for procedural standing in Douglas County v. Babbitt, 48 F.3d 1495 (9th Cir.1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1042, 116 S.Ct. 698, 133 L.Ed.2d 655 (1996). To establish procedural standing, the plaintiff must show: (1) that it has been accorded a procedural right to protect its concrete interests, and (2) that it has a threatened concrete interest that is the ultimate basis of its standing. See id. at 1500-01 (citing Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. at 572 n. 7 & 573 n. 8, 112 S.Ct. 2130). We require that the plaintiff establish the “reasonable probability” of the challenged action’s threat to its concrete interest. Id. at 1501 n. 6. In addition, a plaintiff who brings a statutory enforcement action under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. § 702, must meet its statutory requirements for standing. See Lujan v. National Wildlife Fed’n, 497 U.S. 871, 882-83, 110 S.Ct. 3177, 111 L.Ed.2d 695 (1990). The plaintiff must establish (1) that there has been final agency action adversely affecting the plaintiff, and (2) that, as a result, it suffers legal wrong or that its injury falls within the “zone of interests” of the statutory provision the plaintiff claims was violated. Id. (citing 5 U.S.C. § 702); see also Douglas County, 48 F.3d at 1499-1501; Friends of the Earth v. United States Navy, 841 F.2d 927, 932 (9th Cir.1988).