Court Opinion

ID: 9774780
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:33:19.575805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:15.610619
License: Public Domain

Justice SAYLOR,
concurring and dissenting.
In many past decisions, I have taken a broader view of standing than the majority of other Justices. See, e.g., Pittsburgh Palisades Park, LLC v. Commonwealth, 585 Pa. 196, 209-11, 888 A.2d 655, 668-64 (2005) (Saylor, J., dissenting). Here, I support the majority’s judgment that a zone-of-interest test should not be the sole determinant of “immediacy” as that factor is used in standing analysis in Pennsylvania.
Although I have no difficulty with the conclusion that Appellants have a direct, immediate, and substantial interest in the outcome of the litigation, I would note that such factors predominantly serve as the litmus applicable to standing to commence litigation (most frequently in controversy where a plaintiff seeks some sort of declaration of his or her rights and interests). With respect to those already enmeshed in an action where their rights and interests are unquestionably in issue, their standing to assert particular questions — here, a facial constitutional challenge to a presumptively valid statute — generally has been treated as a more refined inquiry.
In this regard, facial constitutional challenges typically are disfavored by courts. See Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party, 552 U.S. 442, 450, 128 S.Ct. 1184, 1191, 170 L.Ed.2d 151 (2008); Dickerson v. Napolitano, 604 F.3d 732, 741 (2d Cir.2010); accord National Automobile Service, Inc. v. Barfod, 288 Pa. 227, 229, 135 A. 630, 630-31 (1927) (explaining that, to support a challenge to a statute under which a court has acted, “ ‘it must plainly appear from the facts presented by the record, ... that the complainant is one who has been directly affected by what he claims to be the unconstitutional part or feature of the statute in question’ ”). As to such contests to duly enacted pronouncements by the legislative branch of government, judicial restraint is implicat*521ed, and special rules of standing pertain. See, e.g., Dickerson, 604 F.3d at 741-42.
Since this particular line of analysis is not set out in the submissions to this Court, I do not consider it further here. I note only that I would not obviate its development in the intermediate or common pleas courts, to the extent it may remain available for consideration by those tribunals.
Thus, I reference the limitations on facial challenges here primarily because, without their consideration, I am unable to support the majority’s broader pronouncements concerning Appellants’ standing to invoke the dormant Commerce and Equal Protection Clauses to challenge the facial validity of Section 1929.1. I also find the principles helpful to a better grasp of standing jurisprudence as applied to those whose individual interests are unquestionably at stake in an existing civil action.