Opinion ID: 779470
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Standing revisited.

Text: 54 Having concluded that the unbridled discretion standard applies to a mandatory fee system, we return to the question of standing, which is now easily resolved. Recall that the University argued that the students lack standing to sue because they fail to allege any actual incidents of viewpoint discrimination. However, as summarized above, see supra at 574-78, the Supreme Court has long held that when a licensing scheme vests unbridled discretion in a government official, a plaintiff has standing to facially challenge that regulation without applying for a license. As also detailed above, see supra at 578-80, while this case involves a challenge to a mandatory fee system, as opposed to a licensing or permit ordinance, the Constitution nonetheless prohibits a mandatory fee system from granting unbridled discretion to the decisionmaker. A straightforward application of those principles to the case at hand, then, demonstrates that the plaintiffs have standing to facially challenge the mandatory fee system on the grounds that it grants the student government unbridled discretion; just as a plaintiff has standing to present a facial challenge to a licensing statute without applying for a license, see supra at 574-78, so too do these students have standing to present a facial challenge to the University's mandatory fee system without applying for, or being denied, funding. Accordingly, we conclude that the students have standing to challenge the University's alleged failure to conform with the constitutional requirement of viewpoint neutrality by granting unbridled discretion to those making the funding decisions.