Opinion ID: 2517710
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: fent's standing

Text: ¶ 6 Fent claims he has standing [18] as an Oklahoma resident taxpayer, citizen and voter to challenge as constitutionally infirm (a) the expenditure of public tax-derived funds in the amount of $20,000,000, (b) the CRB, an executive board composed of two legislative and one executive voting members, whose mandatory participation in the approval of expenditures to be made out of appropriations to the Opportunity Fund offends the separation-of-powers doctrine, Art. 4 § 1, Okl. Const., and (c) the role of the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, both of whom sit on the CRB in contravention of the dual-office-holding prohibition of Art. 5 § 23, Okl. Const. Fent's claim to standing is unchallenged by the respondents. Since standing, very much like jurisdiction, must be inquired into sua sponte, [19] we must pass here sua sponte on Fent's standing. ¶ 7 Standing refers to a person's legal right to seek relief in a judicial forum. [20] The three threshold criteria of standing are (1) a legally protected interest which must have been injured in fact i.e., suffered an injury which is actual, concrete and not conjectural in nature, (2) a causal nexus between the injury and the complained-of conduct, and (3) a likelihood, as opposed to mere speculation, that the injury is capable of being redressed by a favorable court decision. [21] The doctrine of standing ensures a party has a personal stake in the outcome of a case and the parties are truly adverse. [22] ¶ 8 This court has long-recognized the right of a taxpayer to challenge illegal taxation or expenditure of public funds. [23] The unlawful appropriation or expenditure of public funds is deemed to be an invasion of the taxpayer's legal rights. [24] A taxpayer also has a vital interest in (a) the unimpeded use of appropriated funds (b) by its destined recipient (c) for the purpose for which the fund was intended (d) without unlawful legislative interference. There is an injury to the public interest when the Legislature places unlawful barriers to a recipient agency's access to appropriated funds by interposing its own control over an appropriation bill beyond the point in time at which that bill passes outside the legitimate zone of legislative control. [25] A taxpayer's challenge to the constitutionality of legislation affecting the use of public funds is a matter of public right. ¶ 9 The claimed public injury in this case consists of the Legislature's usurpation of the executive branch's power (to use appropriated funds) through legislative post-passage interposition of an improper veto barrier which legislative officials may use when sitting on the CRB. That injury is redressable by judicial severance of the offending provisions of 62 O.S.Supp.2006 § 48(B) from the remainder of the statute.