Court Opinion

ID: 9558603
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:13:28.792284+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:26.579596
License: Public Domain

BETTY B. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the majority opinion. I write separately to elaborate more fully why Caldwell lacks standing.
Caldwell’s injury is limited to “the psychological consequence presumably produced by observation of conduct with which one disagrees.” Valley Forge Christian Coll. v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc., 454 U.S. 464, 485, 102 S.Ct. 752, 70 L.Ed.2d 700 (1982). Caldwell does not allege that her children’s school has incorporated the offending views expressed on the UE website into its science curriculum or that her children’s biology teacher articulated them in response to a student’s question. Thus, there is no allegation that Caldwell’s children or Caldwell herself were “directly affected” by the offensive content of the UE website. Cf. School District of Abing-ton v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203, 224 n. 9, 83 S.Ct. 1560, 10 L.Ed.2d 844 (1963) (holding that public school pupils and their parents who objected to Bible reading in school had standing because they were “directly affected by the laws and practices against which their complaints [were] directed”).
*1134Caldwell also does not allege that her contact with the offensive views expressed on the UE website was “frequent and regular” or “unwelcome.” Vasquez v. Los Angeles County, 487 F.3d 1246, 1251, 1252 (9th Cir.2007). There is no allegation that Caldwell had any reason to visit the offending web page more than once. Cf. id. at 1248, 1249, 1253 (holding that county resident and employee who had daily, unwelcome contact with allegedly anti-religious county seal had standing). Nor did the single offending web page prevent Caldwell from freely using the rest of the UE website: the site comprises approximately 840 pages, each of which can be viewed without having first viewed the offending page. Cf. Buono v. Norton, 371 F.3d 543, 547 (9th Cir.2004) (holding that plaintiff who was “unable to freely use” the area of the Mojave National Preserve around a Latin cross because of the government’s allegedly unconstitutional actions had standing (internal quotation marks, editorial marks, and citation omitted)).
Moreover, while “[w]e have repeatedly held that inability to unreservedly use public land suffices as injury-in-faet,” id. (citation omitted), I am not persuaded that inability unreservedly to use a government-run website necessarily also suffices as injury-in-fact. Accessing and leaving a website is quick and easy, and the alleged offense from the content of one page out of 840 that one need not read or tarry over is fleeting at best. While in certain cases the inability to access a government-run website due to allegedly unconstitutional content may well confer standing, I conclude that Caldwell’s injury is too de minimis to satisfy the standing doctrine’s core aim of “improving judicial decision-making by ensuring that there is a specific controversy before the court and that there is an advocate with sufficient personal concern to effectively litigate the matter.” Vasquez, 487 F.3d at 1250 (internal quotation marks, editorial marks, and citation omitted).