Opinion ID: 155170
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Fear of Prosecution

Text: 24 Plaintiffs also lack standing because they have failed to allege a credible threat of prosecution. When plaintiffs 'do not claim that they have ever been threatened with prosecution, that a prosecution is likely, or even that a prosecution is remotely possible,' they do not allege a dispute susceptible to resolution by a federal court. Babbitt v. United Farm Workers Nat'l Union, 442 U.S. 289, 298-99, 99 S.Ct. 2301, 2309, 60 L.Ed.2d 895 (1979) (quoting Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 42, 91 S.Ct. 746, 749-50, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971)). Plaintiffs' failure to specify a particular claim they wish to make or receive that is prohibited under the health claims regulations prohibits them from clearing this hurdle. When no potentially prohibited claim has been made, there is no possible violation of the health claims regulations and thus no possibility of prosecution. United Farm Workers, 442 U.S. at 298, 99 S.Ct. at 2308-09 (finding no standing where plaintiffs had not alleged an intention to engage in a course of conduct ... proscribed by statute [or regulation], let alone any credible threat of prosecution thereunder); see McCollester v. City of Keene, 668 F.2d 617, 620-21 (1st Cir.1982) (finding no standing where complaint failed to allege conduct in which plaintiffs intended to engage and alleged nothing more than speculative risk of prosecution). Plaintiffs' failure to allege a credible threat of prosecution deprives them of standing.