Opinion ID: 710227
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Constitutional Requirement of Standing.

Text: 30 The Constitution confines the judicial power of the federal courts to deciding cases or controversies. U.S. Const. art. III, Sec. 2, cl. 1. The doctrine of standing is derived directly from this constitutional provision. See Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 751, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 3324-25, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984). It focuses upon the party seeking to invoke federal jurisdiction, rather than upon the justiciability of the issue at stake in the litigation. See Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 99-100, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 1952-53, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968). We have held that the Article III  'case or controversy' requirement coincides with the scope of the powers the Bankruptcy Code gives a trustee. Shearson Lehman Hutton, Inc. v. Wagoner, 944 F.2d 114, 118 (2d Cir.1991). 31 To have standing, [a] plaintiff must allege personal injury fairly traceable to the defendant's allegedly unlawful conduct and likely to be redressed by the requested relief. Id. at 751, 104 S.Ct. at 3324; see also Fulani v. League of Women Voters Educ. Fund, 882 F.2d 621, 624 (2d Cir.1989) (quoting Allen, 468 U.S. at 751, 104 S.Ct. at 3324). A plaintiff must always have suffered 'a distinct and palpable injury to himself'.... Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 100, 99 S.Ct. 1601, 1608, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979) (quoting Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 501, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2206, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975)). The injury must be concrete in nature and particularized to [the plaintiff], In re United States Catholic Conference (USCC) (Abortion Rights Mobilization, Inc. v. Baker), 885 F.2d 1020, 1023-24 (2d Cir.1989), cert. denied, 495 U.S. 918, 110 S.Ct. 1946, 109 L.Ed.2d 309 (1990), and not [a]bstract, conjectural, or hypothetical, City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 101-02, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 1665, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983). 32 As the multitude of standing cases indicates, however, [t]hese terms cannot be defined so as to make application of the constitutional standing requirement a mechanical exercise. Allen, 468 U.S. at 751, 104 S.Ct. at 3324. Accordingly, the Supreme Court instructs us to compar[e] the allegations of the particular complaint to those made in prior standing cases, id. at 751-52, 104 S.Ct. at 3325, while keeping in mind the important role that the doctrine of separation of powers plays in limiting the scope of judicial authority, id. at 752, 104 S.Ct. at 3325. 33