Opinion ID: 109380
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ripeness

Text: Appellants argue that given the Commission's extensive powers the method of choosing its members under § 437c (a) (1) runs afoul of the separation of powers embedded in the Constitution, and urge that as presently constituted the Commission's existence be held unconstitutional by this Court. Before embarking on this or any related inquiry, however, we must decide whether these issues are properly before us. Because of the Court of Appeals' emphasis on lack of ripeness of the issue relating to the method of appointment of the members of the Commission, we find it necessary to focus particularly on that consideration in this section of our opinion. We have recently recognized the distinction between jurisdictional limitations imposed by Art. III and [p]roblems of prematurity and abstractness that may prevent adjudication in all but the exceptional case. Socialist Labor Party v. Gilligan, 406 U. S. 583, 588 (1972). In Regional Rail Reorganization Act Cases, 419 U. S. 102, 140 (1974), we stated that ripeness is peculiarly a question of timing, and therefore the passage of months between the time of the decision of the Court of Appeals and our present ruling is of itself significant. We likewise observed in the Reorganization Act Cases: Thus, occurrence of the conveyance allegedly violative of Fifth Amendment rights is in no way hypothetical or speculative. Where the inevitability of the operation of a statute against certain individuals is patent, it is irrelevant to the existence of a justiciable controversy that there will be a time delay before the disputed provisions will come into effect. Id., at 143. The Court of Appeals held that of the five specific certified questions directed at the Commission's authority, only its powers to render advisory opinions and to authorize excessive convention expenditures were ripe for adjudication. The court held that the remaining aspects of the Commission's authority could not be adjudicated because [in] its present stance, this litigation does not present the court with the concrete facts that are necessary to an informed decision. [157] 171 U. S. App. D. C., at 244, 519 F. 2d, at 893. Since the entry of judgment by the Court of Appeals, the Commission has undertaken to issue rules and regulations under the authority of § 438 (a) (10). While many of its other functions remain as yet unexercised, the date of their all but certain exercise is now closer by several months than it was at the time the Court of Appeals ruled. Congress was understandably most concerned with obtaining a final adjudication of as many issues as possible litigated pursuant to the provisions of § 437h. Thus, in order to decide the basic question whether the Act's provision for appointment of the members of the Commission violates the Constitution, we believe we are warranted in considering all of those aspects of the Commission's authority which have been presented by the certified questions. [158] Party litigants with sufficient concrete interests at stake may have standing to raise constitutional questions of separation of powers with respect to an agency designated to adjudicate their rights. Palmore v. United States, 411 U. S. 389 (1973); Glidden Co. v. Zdanok, 370 U. S. 530 (1962); Coleman v. Miller, 307 U. S. 433 (1939). In Glidden, of course, the challenged adjudication had already taken place, whereas in this case appellants' claim is of impending future rulings and determinations by the Commission. But this is a question of ripeness, rather than lack of case or controversy under Art. III, and for the reasons to which we have previously adverted we hold that appellants' claims as they bear upon the method of appointment of the Commission's members may be presently adjudicated.