Nature of Judicial Review Flashcards
Federal judicial power extends to cases involving:
Interpretation of the Constitution, federal laws, treaties, and admiralty and maritime laws; AND
Disputes between states, states and foreign citizens, and citizens of diverse citizenship.
The 11th Amendment is a jurisdictional bar that prohibits?
Exceptions?
The citizens of one state or a foreign country from suing another state in federal court for money damages or equitable relief;
AND
prohibits Suits in federal court against state officials for violating state law.
However, the following are exceptions to the application of the 11th Amendment:
Consent. A state may consent to a suit by waiving its 11th Amendment protection.
Injunctive Relief. When a state official, rather than the state itself, is named as the defendant in an action brought in federal court, the state official may be enjoined from enforcing a state law that violates federal law or may be compelled to act in accord with federal law despite state law to the contrary.
Individual Damages. An action for damages against a state official is not prohibited so long as the official himself (not the state) will have to pay.
Congressional Authorization. Congress may abrogate state immunity from liability if it is clearly and expressly acting to enforce rights created by the 14th Amendment.
A federal court cannot decide a case unless the plaintiff has standing (i.e., a concrete stake in the outcome of the action). To have standing, a plaintiff bears the burden of establishing three elements:
Injury in Fact. The injury must be concrete and particularized (when a harm is concrete, though widely shared, there is standing). However, it does not have to be physical or economic. While the threat of future injury can suffice, it cannot be merely hypothetical or conjectural, it must be actual and imminent.
Causation. The injury must be fairly traceable to the challenged action (i.e., the
the defendant’s conduct caused the injury).
Redressability. It must be likely that a favorable court decision will redress an injury suffered by the plaintiff.
Generally, a taxpayer does NOT have standing to file a federal lawsuit simply because the taxpayer believes
that the government has allocated funds in an improper way.
However, a taxpayer does have standing to litigate whether, or how much, she owes on her tax bill. In addition, a taxpayer has standing when the taxpayer challenges governmental expenditures as violating the Establishment Clause (ie, fed expenditures endorsing religion)
Generally, one cannot assert the constitutional rights of others to obtain standing, but a
claimant with standing in her own right may also assert the rights of a 3rd party if:
The 3rd party would experience difficulty or is unable to assert their own rights;
There is a special relationship between the plaintiff and the 3rd party;
OR
The plaintiff’s injury adversely affects the plaintiff’s relationship with the 3rd
party.
An organization may bring an action when it has suffered an injury. In addition, an organization may bring an action on behalf of its members (even if the organization itself has not suffered an injury) if:
Its members would have standing to sue in their own right;
AND
The interests at stake are germane to the organization’s purpose.
Ripeness.
A federal court will NOT consider a claim before it has fully developed. For a case to be ripe for litigation, the plaintiff must have experienced a real injury or imminent threat thereof.
Mootness.
A case has become moot if further legal proceedings would have no effect (i.e., there is no longer a controversy). A live controversy must exist at each stage of review (not merely when the complaint is filed).
There are three exceptions:
Capable of Repetition, Yet Evading Review. A case will not be dismissed as moot if the controversy is a type that may often recur, but that will not last long enough to work its way through the judicial system (e.g., abortion challenges once the woman is no longer pregnant).
Voluntary Cessation. A case will not be dismissed as moot if the defendant voluntarily ceases the wrongful action once litigation has commenced. The court must be assured that there is no reasonable expectation that the wrong will be repeated.
Class Actions. An entire class action will not be dismissed as moot solely because the named party’s claim in the class is resolved and becomes moot.
Federal courts may NOT render advisory opinion
on the basis of an abstract or hypothetical dispute. An actual case or controversy must exist.
However, courts may issue declaratory judgments (i.e., judgments that determine the legal effect of proposed conduct without awarding damages or injunctive relief) so long as the action in question poses a real and imminent danger to a party’s interests.
A federal court will NOT rule on a matter in controversy if the matter is a political question to be resolved by one or both of the other two branches of government. A political question not subject to judicial review arises when:
The Constitution has assigned decision making on the matter to a different branch of government;
OR
The matter is inherently not one that the judiciary can decide.
