Opinion ID: 155170
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Overbreadth and Standing

Text: 11 To satisfy Article III's case or controversy requirement, a litigant in federal court is required to establish its own injury in fact. Thus, under traditional constitutional notions, a litigant may invoke only its own constitutional rights and may not assert rights of others not before the court. See Laird v. Tatum, 408 U.S. 1, 14 n. 7, 92 S.Ct. 2318, 2326 n. 7, 33 L.Ed.2d 154 (1972). Under the overbreadth doctrine, however, a litigant may assert rights of individuals not before the court whose First Amendment rights may otherwise be infringed by an overly broad statute or regulation. 6 Village of Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 444 U.S. 620, 634, 100 S.Ct. 826, 834-35, 63 L.Ed.2d 73 (1980). Thus, [i]t is well established in the area of freedom of expression an overbroad regulation may be subject to facial review and invalidation, even though its application in the case under consideration may be constitutionally unobjectionable. Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123, 129, 112 S.Ct. 2395, 2400-01, 120 L.Ed.2d 101 (1992); see also Alexander v. United States, 509 U.S. 544, 555, 113 S.Ct. 2766, 2773-74, 125 L.Ed.2d 441 (1993); Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 612, 93 S.Ct. 2908, 2915-16, 37 L.Ed.2d 830 (1973). 12 The overbreadth exception to traditional notions of constitutional adjudication is based on a recognition that the very existence of some broadly written laws has the potential to chill the expressive activity of others not before the court. Forsyth, 505 U.S. at 129, 112 S.Ct. at 2401. Although the overbreadth doctrine permits a party to challenge a statute or regulation that has not been unconstitutionally applied to that party, it does not dispense with the requirement that the party itself suffer a justiciable injury. Phelps v. Hamilton, 122 F.3d 1309, 1326 (10th Cir.1997) ([A] plaintiff bringing a facial challenge to a statute on First Amendment grounds must still satisfy the 'injury in fact' requirement in order to demonstrate standing.); see 4 Ronald D. Rotunda & John E. Nowak, Treatise on Constitutional Law: Substance and Procedure § 20.8, at 35 (1992) (The decision to grant standing is unrelated to the substantive first amendment determination of whether the statute is unconstitutionally overbroad.). 13 The Supreme Court explained this distinction well in Secretary of State of Maryland v. Joseph H. Munson Co., 467 U.S. 947, 104 S.Ct. 2839, 81 L.Ed.2d 786 (1984). In Munson, the Court considered a facial challenge to a Maryland statute that prohibited charitable organizations from paying or agreeing to pay expenses exceeding 25% of an amount raised in a fundraising activity. Id. at 950, 104 S.Ct. at 2843-44. Munson, a professional for-profit fundraising company, brought a facial challenge under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Munson had entered contracts that called for payment in excess of 25% of funds raised for a given event, and the Secretary of State of Maryland had informed Munson it would be prosecuted upon failure to comply with the statute. In addition, a potential client of Munson's had expressed reluctance to enter a contract with Munson because of the statute's limitation. Id. at 954-55, 104 S.Ct. at 2845-46. Despite these injuries to Munson, it was not a charity and did not claim its own First Amendment rights had or would be infringed by the statute. Id. at 955, 104 S.Ct. at 2846. The Court nevertheless concluded that Munson had standing to raise First Amendment concerns affecting charities. The Court explained: 14 Facial challenges to overly broad statutes are allowed not primarily for the benefit of the litigant, but for the benefit of society--to prevent the statute from chilling the First Amendment rights of other parties not before the court. Munson's ability to serve that function has nothing to do with whether or not its own First Amendment rights are at stake. The crucial issues are whether Munson satisfies the requirement of injury in fact, and whether it can be expected satisfactorily to frame the issues in the case. If so, there is no reason that Munson need also be a charity. If not, Munson could not bring this challenge even if it were a charity. 15 Id. at 958, 104 S.Ct. at 2847 (emphasis added). The Court went on: 16 The requirement that a statute be substantially overbroad before it will be struck down on its face is a standing question only to the extent that if the plaintiff does not prevail on the merits of its facial challenge and cannot demonstrate that, as applied to it, the statute is unconstitutional, it has no standing to allege that, as applied to others, the statute might be unconstitutional. 17 Id. at 959, 104 S.Ct. at 2848. 18 Thus, although the overbreadth doctrine allows one whose First Amendment rights have not been violated to assert a facial challenge on behalf of others whose rights may be infringed, it does not eliminate the need for the plaintiff to demonstrate its own cognizable injury in fact. Plaintiffs here have attempted to challenge the constitutionality of the health claims regulations without identifying any specific harm caused them by the regulations. Unlike Munson, which alleged its own identifiable injury and thereby provided the vehicle to bring a First Amendment facial challenge premised on the statute's overbreadth, plaintiffs have alleged no injury in fact and thus cannot raise constitutional issues pertaining to them or to anyone else. 7