Federal Judicial Power

Question 1

4 requirements for cases and controversies: Justicability Doctrines

Answer 1

1. Standing
2. Ripeness
3. Mootness
4. Political Question

Question 2

Standing

Answer 2

Standing is the issue of whether the plaintiff is the proper party to bring a matter to the court for adjudication.

Question 3

Requirements for Standing

Answer 3

1. Injury
2. Causation and redressability
3. No 3rd Party Standing
4. No generalized grievances

Question 4

Injury Requirement for Standing

Answer 4

The plaintiff must allege and prove that he or she has been injured or imminently will be injured

• Plaintiffs only may assert injuries that they personally have suffered
• Plaintiffs seeking injunctive or declaratory relief must show a likelihood of future harm

Question 5

Causation & Redressability Requirement for Standing

Answer 5

The plaintiff must allege and prove that the defendant caused the injury so that a favorable court decision is likely to remedy the injury.

Question 6

No third party Standing Requirement and its exceptions

Answer 6

A plaintiff cannot assert claims of others, of third parties, who are not before the court.

Exceptions:

1. third party standing is allowed if there is a close relationship between the plaintiff and the injured third party
2. third party standing is allowed if the injured third party is unlikely to be able to assert his or her own rights
3. an organization may sue for its members, if
   
   1. the members would have standing to sue;
   2. the interests are germane to the organization’s purpose;
   3. neither the claim nor relief requires participation of individual members

Question 7

No generalized grievances and its exception

Answer 7

• The plaintiff must not be suing solely as a citizen or as a taxpayer interested in having the government follow the law.
• Exception: taxpayers have standing to challenge government expenditures pursuant to federal (or state and local) statutes as violating the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment

Question 8

Ripeness

Answer 8

Ripeness is the question of whether a federal court may grant pre-enforcement review of a statute or regulation.

Question 9

Ripeness Factors

Answer 9

1. The hardship that will be suffered without preenforcement review
   
   • The greater the hardship the P will sufferer w/o the review, the greater the chance they will review.
2. The fitness of the issues and the record for judicial review
   
   • Is there a reason the court would be better off waiting to decide at a later time?

Question 10

Mootness

Answer 10

If events after the filing of a lawsuit end the plaintiff’s injury, the case must be dismissed as moot.

Question 11

Exceptions to Mootness (Exceptions for when the court will review despite the harm being over)

Answer 11

1. wrong capable of repetition but evading review
2. voluntary cessation. If the defendant voluntarily halts
   the offending conduct, but is free to resume it at any time, the case will not be dismissed as moot.
3. class action suits
   
   • So long as 1 member of the class has an ongoing injury it will not moot

Question 12

The Political Question Doctrine

Answer 12

The political question doctrine refers to constitutional violations that the federal courts will not adjudicate.

Question 13

Things Falling under the Poltical Question Doctrine (things left to the political branche)

Answer 13

1. The “republican form of government clause”
   
   • Art 4 provision: States guaranteed a republican form of government where people elect reps and the reps make the laws. Cases brought under this clause are non-justicable political questions
2. Challenges to the President’s conduct of foreign policy
3. Challenges to the impeachment and removal process
4. Challenges to partisan gerrymandering.

Question 14

Cases within the Supreme Court’s Power to Review

Answer 14

1. All cases from state courts come to the Supreme Court by writ of certiorari
2. All cases from United States courts of appeals come to the Supreme Court by writ of certiorari
3. Appeals exist for decisions of three-judge federal district courts
   
   • Supreme Court is required to take these appeals (not certiorari) if appeal is requested
4. The Supreme Court has original and exclusive jurisdiction for suits between state governments
   
   • Only the S. Ct can hear states between State governments - the parties must file with SCOTUS.

Question 15

Final Judgment Rule

Answer 15

Generally, the Supreme Court may hear cases only after there has been a final judgment of the highest state court, of a United States Court of Appeals, or of a three-judge federal district court

Question 16

Supreme Court Review of State Decisions

Answer 16

For the Supreme Court to review a state court decision, there must not be an independent and adequate state law ground of decision.

If a state court decision rests on two grounds, one state law and one federal law, if the Supreme Court’s reversal of the federal law ground will not change the result in the case, the Supreme Court cannot hear it.

Question 17

The principle of sovereign immunity

Answer 17

1. The Eleventh Amendment bars suits against states in federal court
2. Sovereign immunity bars suits against states in state courts or federal agencies

Question 18

Exceptions to the Principle of Soveriegn Immunity: States may be sued under the following circumstances:

Answer 18

1. Waiver is permitted (only if express)
2. States may be sued pursuant to federal laws adopted under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress cannot authorize suits against states under other constitutional provisions.
3. The federal government may sue state governments.
4. Bankruptcy proceedings.

Question 19

Suits against state officers

Answer 19

Suits against state officers are allowed

1. state officers may be sued for injunctive relief;
2. state officers may be sued for money damages to be paid out of their own pockets
3. state officers may not be sued if it is the state treasury that will be paying retroactive damages

Question 20

Abstention

Answer 20

Federal courts may not enjoin pending state court proceedings