Opinion ID: 163442
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Standing to Sue the Federal Government

Text: 17 The plaintiff brings this action in his capacity as a resident taxpayer, citizen and voter of Oklahoma County, State of Oklahoma. His claim against the federal government is that the U.S. Congress has no power, under the U.S. Constitution `spending clause' of Art. I, § 8, cl. 1 or other Constitutional authority, to enact 23 U.S.C. § 122 ... as to possible future federal highway grant money to pay off State debt bonds. We review questions of standing de novo, Roe No. 2 v. Ogden, 253 F.3d 1225, 1228 (10th Cir.2001), and we conclude that the plaintiff does not have standing to bring this suit either as a taxpayer, citizen, or voter. 18 Since its decision in Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447, 43 S.Ct. 597, 67 L.Ed. 1078 (1923), the Supreme Court has taken a restrictive view of the circumstances under which a taxpayer will have standing to challenge congressional action taken pursuant to the Spending Clause. See, e.g., United States v. Richardson, 418 U.S. 166, 174-75, 94 S.Ct. 2940, 41 L.Ed.2d 678 (1974) (rejecting standing of taxpayer plaintiff in suit seeking disclosure of C.I.A. expenditures); Valley Forge Christian Coll. v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc., 454 U.S. 464, 482, 102 S.Ct. 752, 70 L.Ed.2d 700 (1982) (rejecting taxpayer standing where plaintiff challenged transfer of federal property to religious college). Frothingham established the general rule that the expenditure of public funds in an allegedly unconstitutional manner is not an injury sufficient to confer standing, even though the plaintiff contributes to the public coffers as a taxpayer. Valley Forge, 454 U.S. at 477, 102 S.Ct. 752. The Supreme Court thus far has recognized only one exception to this rule: a taxpayer may have standing to challenge Congressional action taken pursuant to the Spending Clause when the action allegedly violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Flast, 392 U.S. at 105-06, 88 S.Ct. 1942. 19 In Flast, the Court established a two-pronged test to determine whether a taxpayer has standing to sue. Id. at 102-03, 88 S.Ct. 1942. First, because the injury a taxpayer alleges is his liability for taxes, the Court held that a taxpayer will be a proper party to allege the unconstitutionality only of exercises of congressional power under the taxing and spending clause of Art. I, § 8, of the Constitution. Id. at 102, 88 S.Ct. 1942. Second, the taxpayer must show that the challenged enactment exceeds specific constitutional limitations imposed upon the exercise of the congressional taxing and spending power and not simply that the enactment is generally beyond the powers delegated to Congress by Art. I, § 8. Id. at 102-03, 88 S.Ct. 1942. When both [requirements] are established, the litigant will have shown a taxpayer's stake in the outcome of the controversy and will be a proper and appropriate party to invoke a federal court's jurisdiction. Id. at 103, 88 S.Ct. 1942. In Flast, the plaintiff satisfied the first prong by challenging Congress's allocation of federal funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Id. at 85, 103, 88 S.Ct. 1942. She satisfied the second prong by alleging that the expenditure violated the Establishment Clause because some of the funds were being used to support religious schools. Id. at 103, 88 S.Ct. 1942. With respect to the second prong, the Court held that the Establishment Clause operates as a specific constitutional limitation upon the exercise by Congress of the taxing and spending power conferred by Art. I, § 8. Id. at 104, 88 S.Ct. 1942. 20 The plaintiff in the instant case has met the first requirement for standing as a taxpayer. In attacking payments by the federal government to the states made pursuant to 23 U.S.C. § 122, he is challenging expenditures by Congress under its Art. I, § 8, power to spend for the general welfare. 2 The question is whether he satisfies the second requirement of identifying a specific constitutional limitation[] imposed upon the exercise of the congressional taxing and spending power that 23 U.S.C. § 122 allegedly violates. 21 The plaintiff alleges that 23 U.S.C. § 122 interferes with his constitutionally guaranteed right to vote. In deciding whether, as the plaintiff alleges, the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution confer upon him a right to vote that 23 U.S.C. § 122 interferes with, we must determine whether there is a logical nexus between the status asserted [by the plaintiff] and the claim sought to be adjudicated. Flast, 392 U.S. at 102, 88 S.Ct. 1942. As for the plaintiff's status, he does state in his complaint that he is suing both as a taxpayer and voter. Where the plaintiff's standing fails, however, is in his failure to establish a logical nexus between his status as a taxpayer and voter and his claim that 23 U.S.C. § 122 interferes with his right to vote. 22 On its face, § 122 says nothing about state citizens' rights to vote on the issuance of state bonds. It merely empowers the Secretary of Transportation to reimburse states for certain debts incurred for transportation projects. There is no logical connection between the operation of § 122 and whatever rights the plaintiff may have under Oklahoma law to vote on the issuance of state bonds. For example, federal regulations require that payments pursuant to § 122 may not be made unless the debt for which a state is being reimbursed was incurred in conformity with applicable ... State law. 23 C.F.R. § 1.9(a). In addition, although it is obvious that the bonds proposed to be issued by Oklahoma in the instant case were authorized in part because of the anticipated reimbursement the state can receive under § 122, there is no causal relationship between the availability of reimbursement and the fact that no state-wide vote was held to authorize the Oklahoma Grant Anticipation Notes. Because there is no logical connection between § 122 and the plaintiff's asserted right under Oklahoma law to vote on bond issues, he cannot establish standing as taxpayer and voter to challenge the constitutionality of § 122. 23 The plaintiff also cites to the Tenth Amendment, arguing that § 122 violates the constitutionally protected sphere of state sovereignty. The plaintiff asserts that [f]ederal laws such as ... § 122 cannot operate to displace the State's freedom to structure integral internal operations in areas of traditional State governmental functions such as local debt financial [sic] methods of raising money. It is not necessary for us to determine whether the Tenth Amendment can operate as the independent limitation on the spending power required by Flast. 3 Assuming arguendo that the Tenth Amendment could be such a limitation, it is obvious that § 122 does not interfere with state sovereignty. The statute does not place any restriction or burden whatsoever upon how and whether the states will issue debt to pay for transportation projects, and the plaintiff identifies none. States are free to finance the development of their transportation infrastructure as they wish. Section 122 only becomes relevant if a state chooses to seek federal reimbursement for the costs of such financing; only then must a state's financing projects conform to applicable federal regulations. To the extent a state's financing activity is constrained by the regulations governing reimbursement under § 122, such restraints are accepted by the states themselves when they choose to apply for federal funds to pay for their transportation projects. Therefore, we conclude there is no logical link between the harm to state sovereignty that the plaintiff alleges and the statute that he seeks to invalidate. 24 Finally, we note that in addition to his status as a taxpayer and voter, the plaintiff asserts that he is suing in his capacity as a citizen. This status is not sufficient to establish standing in this case. [T]he Art[icle] III requirements of standing are not satisfied by `the abstract injury in nonobservance of the Constitution asserted by ... citizens.' Valley Forge, 454 U.S. at 482, 102 S.Ct. 752 (quoting Schlesinger v. Reservists Comm. to Stop the War, 418 U.S. 208, 223 n. 13, 94 S.Ct. 2925, 41 L.Ed.2d 706 (1974)). 25 The plaintiff does not satisfy the requirements established by Flast v. Cohen to sue the federal government to invalidate 23 U.S.C. § 122. We conclude, therefore, that the plaintiff does not have standing to bring his claim against the federal government.