Court Opinion

ID: 9425799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:15:52.222908+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:57.630936
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Powell,
concurring.
I join the opinion of the Court because I am in accord with most of its analysis, particularly insofar as it relies on traditional barriers against federal taxpayer or citizen standing. And I agree that Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S. 83 (1968), which set the boundaries for the arguments of the parties before us, is the most directly relevant precedent and quite correctly absorbs a major portion of the Court’s attention. I write solely to indicate that I would go further than the Court and would lay to rest the approach undertaken in Flast. I would not overrule Flast on its facts, because it is now settled that federal taxpayer standing exists in Establishment Clause cases. I would not, however, perpetuate the doctrinal confusion inherent in the Flast two-part “nexus” test. That test is not a reliable indicator of when a federal taxpayer has standing, and it has no sound relationship to the question whether such a plaintiff, with no other interest at stake, should be allowed to bring suit against one of the branches of the Federal Government. In my opinion, it should be abandoned.
I
My difficulties with Flast are several. The opinion purports to separate the question of standing from the merits, id., at 99-101, yet it abruptly returns to *181the substantive issues raised by a plaintiff for the purpose of determining “whether there is a logical nexus between the status asserted and the claim sought to be adjudicated.” Id., at 102. Similarly, the opinion distinguishes between constitutional and prudential limits on standing. Id., at 92-94, 97. I find it impossible, however, to determine whether the two-part “nexus” test created in Flast amounts to a constitutional or a prudential limitation, because it has no meaningful connection with the Court’s statement of the bare-minimum constitutional requirements for standing.
Drawing upon Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, 204 (1962), the Court in Flast stated the “ ‘gist of the question of standing’ ” as “whether the party seeking relief has ‘alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends for illumination of difficult constitutional questions.’ ” 392 U. S., at 99. As the Court today notes, ante, at 173, this is now the controlling definition of the irreducible Art. Ill case-or-controversy requirements for standing.1 But, as Mr. Justice Harlan pointed out *182in his dissent in Flast, 392 U. S., at 116 et seq., it is impossible to see how an inquiry about the existence of “concrete adverseness” is furthered by an application of the Flast test.
Flast announced the following two-part “nexus” test:
“The nexus demanded of federal taxpayers has two aspects to it. First, the taxpayer must establish a logical link between that status and the type of legislative enactment attacked. Thus, 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. It will not be sufficient to allege an incidental expenditure of tax funds in the administration of an essentially regulatory statute. . . . Secondly, the taxpayer must establish a nexus between that status and the precise nature of the constitutional infringement alleged. Under this requirement, 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. When both nexuses 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 102-103.
Relying on history, the Court identified the Establishment Clause as a specific constitutional limitation upon the exercise by Congress of the taxing and spending power *183conferred by Art. I, § 8. 392 U. S., at 103-105. On the other hand, the Tenth Amendment, and apparently the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, were determined not to be such “specific” limitations. The bases for these determinations are not wholly clear, but it appears that the Court found the Tenth Amendment addressed to the interests of the States, rather than of taxpayers, and the Due Process Clause no protection against increases in tax liability. Id., at 105.
In my opinion, Mr. Justice Harlan’s critique of the Flast “nexus” test is unanswerable. As he pointed out, “the Court’s standard for the determination of standing [i. e., sufficiently concrete adverseness] and its criteria for the satisfaction of that standard are entirely unrelated.” Id., at 122. Assuming that the relevant constitutional inquiry is the intensity of the plaintiff’s concern, as the Court initially posited, id., at 99, the Flast criteria “are not in any sense a measurement of any plaintiff’s interest in the outcome of any suit.” Id., at 121 (Harlan, J., dissenting) . A plaintiff’s incentive to challenge an expenditure does not turn on the “unconnected fact” that it relates to a regulatory rather than a spending program, id., at 122, or on whether the constitutional provision on which he relies is a “specific limitation” upon Congress’ spending powers. Id., at 123.2
*184The ambiguities inherent in the Flast “nexus” limitations on federal taxpayer standing are illustrated by this case. There can be little doubt about respondent’s fervor in pursuing his case, both within administrative channels and at every level of the federal courts. The intensity of his interest appears to bear no relationship to the fact that, literally speaking, he is not challenging directly a congressional exercise of the taxing and spending power. On the other hand, if the involvement of the taxing and spending power has some relevance, it requires no great leap in reasoning to conclude that the Statement and Account Clause, Art. I, § 9, cl. 7, on which respondent relies, is inextricably linked to that power. And that Clause might well be seen as a “specific” limitation on congressional spending. Indeed, it could be viewed as the most democratic of limitations. Thus, although the Court’s application of Flast to the instant case is probably literally correct, adherence to the Flast test in this instance suggests, as does Flast itself, that the test is not a sound or logical limitation on standing.
■ The lack of real meaning and of principled content in the Flast “nexus” test renders it likely that it will in time collapse of its own weight, as Mr. Justice Douglas predicted in his concurring opinion in that case. 392 U. S., at 107. This will present several options for the Court. It may either reaffirm pre-Flast prudential limitations on federal and citizen taxpayer standing; attempt new doctrinal departures in this area, as would Mr. Justice Stewart, post, at 203-204; or simply drop standing barriers altogether, as, judging by his concurring opinion in Flast, supra, and his dissenting opinion today, would Mr. Justice Douglas.3 I believe the first option to be the *185appropriate course, for reasons which may be emphasized by noting the difficulties I see with the other two. And, while I do not disagree at this late date with the Baker v. Carr statement of the constitutional indicia of standing, I further believe that constitutional limitations are not the only pertinent considerations.
II
Mr. Justice Stewart^ joined by Mr. Justice Marshall, would grant citizen or taxpayer standing under those clauses of the Constitution that impose on the Federal Government “an affirmative duty” to do something on behalf of its citizens and taxpayers. Post, at 203-204. Although he distinguishes between an affirmative constitutional duty and a “constitutional prohibition” for purposes of this case, post, at 202, it does not follow that Mr. Justice Stewart would deny federal taxpayer standing in all cases involving a constitutional prohibition, as his concurring opinion in Flast makes clear.4 Rather, he would find federal taxpayer standing, *186and perhaps citizen standing, in all cases based on constitutional clauses setting forth an affirmative duty and in unspecified cases where the constitutional clause at issue may be seen as a plain or explicit prohibition.
For purposes of determining whether a taxpayer or citizen has standing to challenge the actions of the Federal Government, I fail to perceive a meaningful distinction between constitutional clauses that set forth duties and those that set forth prohibitions.5 In either instance, the relevant inquiry is the same — may a plaintiff, relying on nothing other than citizen or taxpayer status, bring suit to adjudicate whether an entity of the Federal Government is carrying out its responsibilities in conformance with the requirements of the Constitution? A taxpayer’s or citizen’s interest in and willingness to pursue with vigor such a suit would not turn on whether the constitutional clause at issue imposed a duty on the Government to do something for him or prohibited the Government from doing something to him. Prohibitions and duties in this context are opposite sides of the same coin. Thus, I do not believe that the inquiry whether federal courts should entertain public actions is *187advanced by line drawing between affirmative duties and prohibitions.6
In short, in my opinion my Brother Stewart’s view fails to provide a meaningful stopping point between an all-or-nothing position with regard to federal taxpayer or citizen standing. In this respect, it shares certain of the deficiencies of Flast. I suspect that this may also be true of any intermediate position in this area. Mr. Justice Douglas correctly discerns, I think, that the alternatives here as a matter of doctrine are essentially bipolar. His preference is clear: “I would be as liberal in allowing taxpayers standing to object to . . . violations of the First Amendment as I would in granting standing to people to complain of any invasion *188of their rights under the Fourth Amendment or the Fourteenth or under any other guarantee in the Constitution itself or in the Bill of Rights.” Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S., at 114 (concurring opinion). My view is to the contrary.
Ill
Relaxation of standing requirements is directly related to the expansion of judicial power.7 It seems to me inescapable that allowing unrestricted taxpayer or citizen standing would significantly alter the allocation of power at the national level, with a shift away from a democratic form of government. I also believe that repeated and essentially head-on confrontations between the life-tenured branch and the representative branches of government will not, in the long run, be beneficial to either. The public confidence essential to the former and the vitality critical to the latter may well erode if we do not exercise self-restraint in the utilization of our power to negative the actions of the other branches. We should be ever mindful of the contradictions that would arise if a democracy were to permit general oversight of the elected branches of government by a nonrepresentative, and in large measure insulated, judicial branch.8 Moreover, the *189argument that the Court should allow unrestricted taxpayer or citizen standing underestimates the ability of the representative branches of the Federal Government to respond to the citizen pressure that has been responsible in large measure for the current drift toward expanded standing. Indeed, taxpayer or citizen advocacy, given its potentially broad base, is precisely the type of leverage that in a democracy ought to be employed against the branches that were intended to be responsive to public attitudes about the appropriate operation of government. “We must as judges recall that, as Mr. Justice Holmes wisely observed, the other branches of the Government ‘are ultimate guardians of the liberties and welfare of the people in quite as great a degree as the courts.’ Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. Co. v. May, 194 U. S. 267, 270.” Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S., at 131 (Harlan, J., dissenting).
Unrestrained standing in federal taxpayer or citizen suits would create a remarkably illogical system of judicial supervision of the coordinate branches of the Federal Government. Randolph’s proposed Council of Revision, which was repeatedly rejected by the Framers, at least had the virtue of being systematic; every law passed by the legislature automatically would have been previewed by the Judiciary before the law could take effect.9 On the other hand, since the Judiciary cannot *190select the taxpayers or citizens who bring suit or the nature of the suits, the allowance of public actions would produce uneven and sporadic review, the quality of which *191would be influenced by the resources and skill of the particular plaintiff. And issues would be presented in abstract form, contrary to the Court’s recognition that "judicial review is effective largely because it is not available simply at the behest of a partisan faction, but is exercised only to remedy a particular, concrete injury.” Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U. S. 727, 740-741, n. 16 (1972).10
The power recognized in Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137 (1803), is a potent one. Its prudent use seems to me incompatible with unlimited notions of taxpayer and citizen standing. Were we to utilize this power as indiscriminately as is now being urged, we may witness efforts by the representative branches drastically to curb its use. Due to what many have regarded as the unresponsiveness of the Federal Government to recognized needs or serious inequities in our society, recourse to the federal courts has attained an unprecedented popularity in recent decades. Those courts have often acted as a major instrument of social reform. But this has not always been the case, as experiences under the New Deal illustrate. The public reaction to the substantive due process holdings of the federal courts during that period requires no elaboration, and it is not unusual for history to repeat itself.
*192Quite apart from this possibility, we risk a progressive impairment of the effectiveness of the federal courts if their limited resources are diverted increasingly from their historic role to the resolution of public-interest suits brought by litigants who cannot distinguish themselves from all taxpayers or all citizens. The irreplaceable value of the power articulated by Mr. Chief Justice Marshall lies in the protection it has afforded the constitutional rights and liberties of individual citizens and minority groups against oppressive or discriminatory government action. It is this role, not some amorphous general supervision of the operations of government, that has maintained public esteem for the federal courts and has permitted the peaceful coexistence of the countermajori-tarian implications of judicial review and the democratic principles upon which our Federal Government in the final analysis rests.
The considerations outlined above underlie, I believe, the traditional hostility of the Court to federal taxpayer or citizen standing where the plaintiff has nothing at stake other than his interest as a taxpayer or citizen. It merits noting how often and how unequivocally the Court has expressed its antipathy to efforts to convert the Judiciary into an open forum for the resolution of political or ideological disputes about the performance of government. See, e. g., Ex parte Levitt, 302 U. S. 633, 634 (1937);11 Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U. S. 447, 488 (1923);12 Fairchild v. Hughes, 258 U. S. 126, 129 *193(1922);13 Tyler v. Judges of Court of Registration, 179 U. S. 405, 406 (1900).14 These holdings and declarations reflect a wise view of the need for judicial restraint if we are to preserve the Judiciary as the branch “least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution . . . Federalist No. 78, p. 483 (Lodge ed. 1908).
To be sure standing barriers have been substantially lowered in the last three decades. The Court has confirmed the power of Congress to open the federal courts to representatives of the public interest through specific statutory grants of standing. E. g., FCC v. Sanders Bros. Radio Station, 309 U. S. 470 (1940) ; Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc. v. FCC, 316 U. S. 4 (1942) ; Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S., at 130-133 (Harlan, J., dissenting) ; Traficante v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 409 U. S. 205, 212 (1972) (White, J., concurring). Even in the absence of specific statutory grants of standing, economic interests that at one time would not have conferred standing have been re-examined and found sufficient. Compare, e. g., Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U. S. 150 (1970), and *194Barlow v. Collins, 397 U. S. 159 (1970), with, e. g., Tennessee Electric Power Co. v. TVA, 306 U. S. 118 (1939), and Alabama Power Co. v. Ickes, 302 U. S. 464 (1938). See also Investment Co. Institute v. Camp, 401 U. S. 617 (1971); Arnold Tours, Inc. v. Camp, 400 U. S. 45 (1970). Noneconomic interests have been recognized. E. g., Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186 (1962); Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U. S. 727 (1972). A stringently limited exception for federal taxpayer standing has been created. Flast v. Cohen, supra. The concept of particularized injury has been dramatically diluted. E. g., United States v. SCRAP, 412 U. S. 669 (1973).
The revolution in standing doctrine that has occurred, particularly in the 12 years since Baker v. Carr, supra, has not meant, however, that standing barriers have disappeared altogether. As the Court noted in Sierra Club, “broadening the categories of injury that maybe alleged in support of standing is a different matter from abandoning the requirement that the party seeking review must himself have suffered an injury.” 405 U. S., at 738. Accord, Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 U. S. 614, 617 (1973).15 Indeed, despite the diminution of standing requirements in the last decade, the Court has not broken with the traditional requirement that, in the absence of a specific statutory grant of the right of review, a plaintiff must allege some particularized injury that sets him apart from the man on the street.16
*195I recognize that the Court’s allegiance to a requirement of particularized injury has on occasion required a reading of the concept that threatens to transform it beyond recognition. E. g., Baker v. Carr, supra; Flast v. Cohen, supra,17 But despite such occasional digressions, the requirement remains, and I think it does so for the reasons outlined above. In recognition of those considerations, we should refuse to go the last mile toward abolition of standing requirements that is implicit in broadening the “precarious opening” for federal taxpayers created by Flast, see 392 U. S., at 116 (Fortas, J., concurring), or in allowing a citizen qua citizen to invoke the power of the federal courts to negative unconstitutional acts of the Federal Government.
*196In sum, I believe we should limit the expansion of federal taxpayer and citizen standing in the absence of specific statutory authorization to an outer boundary drawn by the remits in Flast and Baker v. Carr. I think we should face up to the fact that all such suits are an effort “to employ a federal court as a forum in which to air . . . generalized grievances about the conduct of government or the allocation of power in the Federal System.” Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S., at 106. The Court should explicitly reaffirm traditional prudential barriers against such public actions.18 My reasons for this view are rooted in respect for democratic processes and in the conviction that “[t]he powers of the federal judiciary *197will be adequate for the great burdens placed upon them only if they are employed prudently, with recognition of the strengths as well as the hazards that go with our kind of representative government.” Id., at 131 (Harlan, J., dissenting).

 See also, e. g., Barlow v. Collins, 397 U. S. 159, 170-171 (1970) (Brennan, J., dissenting); Scott, Standing in the Supreme Court — A Functional Analysis, 86 Harv. L. Rev. 645, 658 (1973). The test announced in Baker and reiterated in Flast reflects how far the Court has moved in recent years in relaxing standing restraints. In Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447 (1923),for example, the Court declared that to permit a federal taxpayer suit “would be not to decide a judicial controversy, but to assume a position of authority over the governmental acts of another and co-equal department, an authority which plainly we do not possess.” Id., at 489. And in denying standing to citizens and taxpayers seeking to bring suit to invalidate the Nineteenth Amendment in Fairchild v. Hughes, 258 U. S. 126 (1922), the Court stated:
“It is frankly a proceeding to have the Nineteenth Amendment declared void. In form it is a bill in equity; but it is not a case *182within the meaning of § 2 of Article III of the Constitution . . . .” Id., at 129.

 Mr. Justice Harlan’s criticisms of the Court’s analysis in Flast have been echoed by several commentators. E. g., Scott, supra, n. 1, at 660-662; Davis, Standing: Taxpayers and Others, 35 U. Chi. L. Rev. 601, 604-607 (1968). As Professor Scott notes:
“[The Flast ‘nexus’ test] can be understood as an expedient by a court retreating from the absolute barrier of Frothingham, but not sure of how far to go and desirous of a formula that would enable it to make ease by case determinations in the future. By any other standard, however, it is untenable.” 86 Harv. L. Rev., at 661.

 But see Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc. v. FCC, 316 U. S. 4, 18, 20-21 (1942) (Douglas, J., dissenting). MR. Justice Brennan’s *185view, see post, at 237-238, that federal taxpayers are able to meet the “injury-in-fact” test that he articulated in Barlow v. Collins, 397 U. S., at 167-173, renders his position, for me at least, indistinguishable from that of Mr. Justice Douglas. Furthermore, I think that MR. Justice BkeNNAN has modified the standard he identified in Barlow by finding it satisfied in this case. It is a considerable step from the “distinctive and discriminating” economic injury alleged in Barlow, see id., at 172 n. 5, to the generalized interest of a taxpayer or citizen, as Mr. Justice Bebnnan appears to have acknowledged in his opinion in that case. Ibid.

 In Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S. 83 (1968), Mr. Justice Stewart based his concurrence in the majority’s opinion on the view that the Establishment Clause constitutes an explicit prohibition on the taxing and spending power:
“Because that clause plainly prohibits taxing and spending in aid of religion, every taxpayer can claim a personal constitutional right *186not to be taxed for the support of a religious institution. The present ease is thus readily distinguishable from Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U. S. 447, where the taxpayer did not rely on an explicit constitutional prohibition but instead questioned the scope of the powers delegated to the national legislature by Article I of the Constitution.” 392 U. S., at 114. (Emphasis supplied.)

 One commentator, who espouses a broadening of standing in what he refers to as “public actions,” apparently shares this difficulty. See L. Jaffe, Judicial Control of Administrative Action 484 (1965):
“[The ability of a taxpayer or citizen to bring a public action] should not depend on whether the questioned official conduct is of a positive or negative character, that is, whether it consists of the performance of an improper act or the failure to fulfill a duty.”

 Such an approach might well lead to problems of classification that would divert attention from the fundamental question of whether public actions are an appropriate matter for the federal courts. And, if distinctions between constitutional prohibitions and duties are to make a difference, there are certain to be some incongruous rules as to when such a public action maybe brought. This is apparent when one attempts to categorize the provisions of the Constitution primarily addressed at limiting the powers of the National Government — Art. I, § 9, and the Bill of Rights. All of the clauses of Art. I, § 9, except the seventh, which is at issue here, are stated as prohibitions. In fact the seventh clause is in part a prohibition against expenditures of public money in the absence of appropriations and in part an affirmative duty to publish periodically an account of such expenditures. The rationale for according special treatment solely to one-half of Art. I, § 9, cl. 7, and not to the other and not to the remaining clauses of Art. I, § 9, is not immediately apparent.
The same observation may be made of the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment through the Fifth, the Eighth, and possibly the Tenth are stated in terms of prohibitions. The Sixth Amendment and portions of the Seventh can be classified as duties. The Ninth defies classification. Rational rules for standing in public actions are, it seems to me, unlikely to emerge from an effort to make the format of a particular Amendment determinative.

 One commentator predicted this phenomenon and its possible implications at che outset of the past decade of dramatic changes in standing doctrine:
“[J]udicial power expands as the requirements of standing are relaxed. ... [I]f the so-called public action . . . were allowed with respect to constitutional challenges to legislation, then the halls of Congress and of the state legislatures would become with regularity only Act I of any contest to enact legislation involving public officials in its enforcement or application. Act II would, with the usual brief interlude, follow in the courts. . . Brown, Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? — The School-Prayer Cases, 1963 Sup. Ct. Rev. 1, 15-16.

 Cf. A. Bickel, The Least Dangerous Branch 122 (1962).

 Randolph's Resolutions, also referred to as the Virginia Plan, served as the “matrix'' for the document ultimately developed by the Constitutional Convention. See 1 J. Goebel, History of the Supreme Court of the United States 204 (1971). The eighth of Mr. Randolph’s 15 proposals was as follows:
“8. Resd. that the Executive and a convenient number of the National Judiciary, ought to compose a council of revision with authority to examine every act of the National Legislature before it shall operate, & every act of a particular Legislature before a Negative thereon shall be final; and that the dissent of the said *190Council shall amount to a rejection, unless the Act of the National Legislature be again passed, or that of a particular Legislature be again negatived by [an unspecified number] of the members of each branch.” 1 M. Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, p. 21 (1911) (hereafter Farrand).
See 1 J. Elliot, Debates on the Federal Constitution 144 (1836). Madison ably supported the proposal, but it was defeated on three separate votes. 1 Farrand 140, 2 Farrand 71-72, 298.
The analogy between the proposed Council of Revision and unrestricted taxpayer or citizen standing is not complete. For example, Randolph proposed to link the Judiciary directly to the Executive, in large measure to enhance the Executive and to protect it from legislative encroachments. See, e. g., 1 Farrand 108, 138; 2 Farrand 74, 79. Thus, reliance on the Framers’ rejection of the Council must be approached with caution. Nevertheless, the arguments advanced at the Convention in support of and in opposition to the Council provide an interesting parallel to present contentions regarding unrestrained public actions. For example, Madison spoke of the “ good” that would “proceed from the perspicuity, the conciseness, and the systematic character wch. the Code of laws wd. receive from the Judiciary talents.” 1 Farrand 139. He declared that the proposal would be useful “to restrain the Legislature from encroaching on the other co-ordinate Departments, or on the rights of the people at large; or from passing laws unwise in their principle, or incorrect in their form . . . ,” ibid., and that such a system would be “useful to the Community at large as an additional check” against unwise legislative measures. 2 Farrand 74. Those opposed to the proposal, including Gerry, Martin, and Rutledge, preferred to rely “on the Representatives of the people as the guardians of their Rights & interests.” Id., at 75. Judges were not presumed “to possess any peculiar knowledge of the mere policy of public measures . .. ,” id., at 73, or any “higher . . . degree” of knowledge of mankind and of “Legislative affairs . . . .” Id., at 76. It was "necessary that the Supreme Judiciary should have the confidence of the people . . . ,” id., at 76-77, and this would “soon be lost, if they are employed in the task of remonstrating *191agst. popular measures of the Legislature.” Id., at 77. Moreover, the "Judges ought never to give their opinion on a law till it comes before them.” Id., at 80.
The arguments adduced at the Convention in opposition to the Council of Revision ultimately prevailed. I believe that analogous arguments should guide us in refusing as a general matter to entertain public actions.

 Some Western European democracies have experimented with forms of constitutional judicial review in the abstract, see, e. g., M. Cappelletti, Judicial Review in the Contemporary World 71-72 (1971), but that has not been our experience, and I think for good reasons. Cf. Bickel, supra, n. 8, at 115-116.

 “It is an established principle that to entitle a private individual to invoke the judicial power to determine the validity of executive or legislative action he must show that he has sustained or is immediately in danger of sustaining a direct injury as the result of that action and it is not sufficient that he has merely a general interest common to all members of the public.”

 “The party who invokes the power [of the Judiciary to declare a statute unconstitutional] must be able to show not only that the *193statute is invalid but that he has sustained or is immediately in danger of sustaining some direct injury as the result of its enforcement, and not merely that he suffers in some indefinite way in common with people generally.”

 “[Standing will be denied where a plaintiff] has only the right, possessed by every citizen, to require that the Government be administered according to law and that the public moneys be not wasted.”

 “Save in a few instances where, by statute or the settled practice of the courts, the plaintiff is permitted to sue for the benefit of another, he is bound to show an interest in the suit personal to himself, and even in a proceeding which he prosecutes for the benefit of the public, as, for example, in cases of nuisance, he must generally aver an injury peculiar to himself, as distinguished from the great body of his fellow citizens.”

 See ibid,.:
“Although the law of standing has been greatly changed in the last 10 years, we have steadfastly adhered to the requirement that, at least in the absence of a statute expressly conferring standing, federal plaintiffs must allege some threatened or actual injury resulting from the putatively illegal action before a federal court may assume jurisdiction.” (Footnotes omitted.)

 For example, as the Court noted in Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 *195U. S. 727 (1972), “if any group with a bona fide ‘special interest’ could initiate . . . litigation, it is difficult to perceive why any individual citizen with the same bona fide special interest would not also be entitled to do so.” Id., at 739-740. The clear implication is that allowing “any individual citizen with [a] . . . bona fide special interest” to trigger federal court litigation is h result to be avoided. All standing cases, even the most recent ones, include references to the need for particularized injury or similar language. None of them as yet has equated the interest of a taxpayer or citizen, suing in that status alone, with the particularized interest that standing doctrine has traditionally demanded. To take that step, it appears to me, wpuld render the requirement of direct or immediate injury meaningless and would reduce the Court's consistent insistence on such an injury to mere talk.

 Baker v. Carr may have a special claim to sui generis status. It was perhaps a necessary response to the manifest distortion of democratic principles practiced by malapportioned legislatures and to abuses of the political system so pervasive as to undermine democratic processes. Flast v. Cohen may also have been a reaction to what appeared at the time as an immutable political logjam that included unsuccessful efforts to confer specific statutory grants of standing. See, e. g., C. Wright, The Law of Federal Courts 40 (2d ed. 1970). Cf. 392 U. S., at 115-116 (Fortas, J., concurring).

 The doctrine of standing has always reflected prudential as well as constitutional limitations. Indeed, it might be said that the correct reading of the Flast nexus test is as a prudential limit, given the Baker v. Carr definition of the constitutional bare minima. The same is undoubtedly true of, for example, the second test created in Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U. S. 160, 153 (1970) — "whether the interest sought to be protected by the complainant is arguably within the zone of interests to be protected or regulated by the statute or constitutional guarantee in question.” See also Barrows v. Jackson, 346 U. S. 249, 255 (1953): “Apart from the [constitutional] requirement, this Court has developed a complementary rule of self-restraint for its own governance . . . which ordinarily precludes a person from challenging the constitutionality of state action by invoking the rights of others.” See Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S., at 120, 130-133 (Harlan, J., dissenting). Whatever may have been the Court's initial perception of the intent of the Framers, see n. 1, supra, it is now settled that such rules of self-restraint are not required by Art. Ill but are “judicially created overlays that Congress may strip away. . . .” G. Gunther & N. Dowling, Cases and Materials on Constitutional Law 106 (8th ed. 1970). But where Congress does so, my objections to public actions are ameliorated by the congressional mandate. Specific statutory grants of standing in such cases alleviate the conditions that make “judicial forbearance the part of wisdom.” Flast, supra, at 132 (Harlan, J., dissenting) (footnote omitted).