Opinion ID: 289586
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Early Cases

Text: 16 The most famous early cases denying standing were the companion cases of Massachusetts v. Mellon and Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447, 43 S.Ct. 597, 67 L.Ed. 1078 (1923), in which the Court said that the Commonwealth could not sue because its own rights were not involved, and that the individual taxpayer could not sue because the interests of the taxpayer are so comparatively minute and indeterminable and that the taxpayer's contentions, even if proved, would have too remote, fluctuating and uncertain an effect on payments out of the Treasury. 262 U.S. 487, 43 S.Ct. 597, 67 L.Ed. 1078. (The overruling of Frothingham in Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968), will be discussed infra. ) Thus the initial criterion for establishing standing to sue was a showing that a legal right of the plaintiff was violated. As the Court pointed out in Edward Hines Yellow Pine Trustees v. United States, 263 U.S. 143, 148, 44 S.Ct. 72, 68 L.Ed. 216 (1923), the plaintiff must show also that the order alleged to be void subjects them to legal injury, actual or threatened. 17 A subsequent opinion by Mr. Justice Brandeis which clarified that criterion was written the following year in The Chicago Junction Case, 264 U.S. 258, 44 S.Ct. 317, 68 L.Ed. 667 (1924). Standing was upheld therein for six competitors to challenge the validity of an Interstate Commerce Commission decision allowing the New York Central Railroad to acquire an independent terminal railroad in Chicago. The decision was attacked on the ground that there was no evidence to support a finding that the acquisition would be in the public interest as required by the statute. The Court distinguished its prior decision by stating that: 18 This loss is not the incident of more effective competition. Compare Edward Hines [Yellow Pine] Trustees v. United States, 263 U.S. 143, 148 [44 S.Ct. 72, 68 L.Ed. 216]. It is injury inflicted by denying to the plaintiffs equality of treatment   . By reason of [the Interstate Commerce Act] the plaintiffs, being competitors of the New York Central and users of the terminal railroads theretofore neutral, have a special interest in the proposal to transfer the control to that company. 19 264 U.S. at 267, 44 S.Ct. at 320. Professor Jaffe has construed this case to mean that: 20 Standing    is made to rest on a determination that an interest intended by statute to be protected has been denied that protection. It should be stated somewhat more sharply just what this did and did not mean in the context. It did not mean that there was a right that competition not be diminished. The plaintiff could not win simply by showing such diminution. It did mean that the agency was required by the statute to have regard to competition as one factor in its decision; that it must, if it disregards the effect on competition, give a reasoned explanation. It is in this sense that the legal right criterion is most appropriately applied as a generalizing concept to administrative law. 4 21 A clear statement of the bases of this principle is found in the Court's subsequent opinion in Tennessee Elec. Power Co. v. TVA, 306 U.S. 118, 137-138, 59 S.Ct. 366, 83 L.Ed. 543 (1939): 22 The appellants invoke the doctrine that one threatened with direct and special injury by the act of an agent of the government which, but for the statutory authority for its performance, would be a violation of his legal rights, may challenge the validity of the statute in a suit against the agent. The principle is without application unless the right invaded is a legal right, — one of property, one arising out of contract, one protected against tortious invasion, or one founded on a statute which confers a privilege. (Emphasis added.) 23 This case held that a private electric producer did not have standing to challenge governmental subsidy of competition. This line of cases securely entrenched the legal right doctrine in the federal law of standing. Inconsistencies resulting from this doctrine are readily apparent. 5 24 The need for a broader criterion was met by the decision of the Court in FCC v. Sanders Bros. Radio Station, 309 U.S. 470, 60 S.Ct. 693, 84 L.Ed. 869 (1940), which is the leading case on the person aggrieved criterion for standing to sue. With this case the broader concept of standing gained tremendous ground. In Sanders the Court granted standing to a plaintiff who could not demonstrate an infringement of a legally protected right. This the Court did through its interpretation of the Communications Act of 1934, saying of section 402(b) (2) thereof: 25 [Congress] may have been of the opinion that one likely to be financially injured by the issue of a license would be the only person having a sufficient interest to bring to the attention of the appellate court errors of law in the action of the Commission in granting the license. It is within the power of Congress to confer such standing to prosecute an appeal. 26 309 U.S. at 477, 60 S.Ct. at 698. 27 The only apparent difference between Tennessee Electric Power and Sanders is that in Tennessee Electric there was no statutory provision granting judicial review to the courts, whereas in the latter case there was such an express provision. If this is true, the legal right doctrine is certainly dead wherever there is express person aggrieved language in the relevant statute, and there is a strong argument for the proposition that the same result should obtain when section 10 of the Administrative Procedure Act applies. 6 28 At this point in the development of the law of standing the Court evidently perceived the need to promulgate a standard which would provide redress for legitimate grievances in cases in which the plaintiff asserted a position which protected a public rather than a specific private interest; for this purpose it was recognized that the legal right doctrine was needlessly harsh and restrictive. Thus the Court made clear in Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc. v. FCC, 316 U.S. 4, 14, 62 S.Ct. 875, 86 L.Ed. 1229 (1942), that these private litigants have standing only as representatives of the public interest. In using these words to find that a radio station which would in all probability suffer economic injury if the FCC granted a rival license was a person aggrieved under the statute, the Court opened the door to the next logical step, which Judge Frank took the following year. 29 In Associated Industries of New York State, Inc. v. Ickes, 134 F.2d 694, 704 (2d Cir.), vacated as moot, 320 U.S. 707, 64 S.Ct. 74, 88 L.Ed. 414 (1943), Judge Frank, after emphasizing the abovequoted language from Scripps-Howard, said: 30 [W]e believe that the usual standing to sue cases can be reconciled with the Sanders and Scripps-Howard cases, as follows: While Congress can constitutionally authorize no one, in the absence of an actual justiciable controversy, to bring a suit for the judicial determination either of the constitutionality of a statute or the scope of powers conferred by a statute upon government officers, it can constitutionally authorize one of its own officials, such as the Attorney General, to bring a proceeding to prevent another official from acting in violation of his statutory powers; for then an actual controversy exists, and the Attorney General can properly be vested with authority, in such a controversy, to vindicate the interest of the public or the government. Instead of designating the Attorney General, or some other public officer, to bring such proceedings, Congress can constitutionally enact a statute conferring on any non-official person, or on a designated group of non-official persons, authority to bring a suit to prevent action by an officer in violation of his statutory powers; for then, in like manner, there is an actual controversy, and there is nothing constitutionally prohibiting Congress from empowering any person, official or not, to institute a proceeding involving such a controversy, even if the sole purpose is to vindicate the public interest. Such persons, so authorized, are, so to speak, private Attorney Generals. (Emphasis added.) 31