Opinion ID: 6467222
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Injury-In-Fact

Text: {31} Under New Mexico’s Declaratory Judgment Act, standing—like ripeness—is a jurisdictional prerequisite. State ex rel. Overton, 1969-NMSC-140, ¶ 16. “The standing question ‘bears close affinity to questions of ripeness—whether the harm asserted has matured sufficiently to warrant judicial intervention.’” Miss. State Democratic Party v. Barbour, 529 F.3d 538, 544-45 (5th Cir. 2008) (quoting Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 499 n.10 (1975)). “In some cases, the issues of standing and ripeness will completely overlap.” 15 Moore's Federal Practice § 101.71 at 101-308 to 101-309. This is particularly true “in cases involving pre-enforcement review, the standing and ripeness inquiries may tend to converge. This is because claims for pre-enforcement review involve the possibility of wholly prospective future injury, not a prayer for relief from damages already sustained.” Elend v. Basham, 471 F.3d 1199, 1205 (11th Cir. 2006). {32} To obtain standing in New Mexico, litigants must allege an injury-in-fact, i.e., that “they are directly injured as a result of the action they seek to challenge” in court. See ACLU of N.M., 2008-NMSC-045, ¶ 1; N.M. Right to Choose/NARAL v. Johnson, 1999-NMSC-005, ¶ 12, 126 N.M. 788, 975 P.2d 841. The litigant must show “that he is imminently threatened with injury, or, put another way, that he is faced with a real risk of future injury, as a result of the challenged action or statute.” ACLU of N.M., 2008-NMSC-045, ¶ 11 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). Requiring the party bringing suit to show a concrete injury or threat of injury “serves well-established goals of sound judicial policy.” Id. ¶ 19. This requirement prevents our courts from making unnecessary constitutional determinations and ensures that the judiciary maintains a proper relationship with other branches of government. Id. Hypothetical possibilities of injury “will not suffice to establish the threat of direct injury required for standing.” Id. ¶ 29; see also 15 Moore’s Federal Practice § 101 -40[4][b][i] at 101-60 (“An injury that is merely conjectural, speculative, or hypothetical will not satisfy the injury-in-fact component of standing.”). {33} Forreasons already stated, AFSCME asserts only the possibility of a hypothetical injury and, therefore, has not established an injury-in-fact.