824
Opinion of Scalia, J.
standing to assert these claims, but that the claims are meritless.1 I disagree with the Court's conclusion on the standing question, and therefore do not reach the merits. Our cases have established that there are three elements to the "irreducible constitutional minimum of standing" required by Article III: (1) the plaintiffs must establish that they have suffered "injury in fact"; (2) they must show causation between the challenged action and the injury; and (3) they must establish that it is likely that the injury will be redressed by a decision in their favor. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U. S. 555, 560 (1992). Appellees have clearly satisfied the first two requirements, but I think they founder on the third.
The plurality concludes that declaratory relief directed at the Secretary alone would be sufficient to redress appellees' injury. Ante, at 803. I do not agree. Ordering the Secretary to recalculate the final census totals will not redress appellees' injury unless the President accepts the new numbers, changes his calculations accordingly, and issues a new reapportionment statement to Congress, and the Clerk of the House then submits new certificates to the States. 13 U. S. C. § 141(b); 2 U. S. C. § 2a. I agree that, in light of the Clerk's purely ministerial role, we can properly assume that insofar as his participation is concerned the sequence of events will occur. But as the Court correctly notes, ante, at 797-800, the President's role in the reapportionment process is not purely ministerial; he is not "required to adhere to the policy decisions reflected in the Secretary's report," ante, at 799. I do not think that for purposes of the Article III redressability requirement we are ever entitled to assume, no matter how objectively reasonable the assumption may be, that the President (or, for that matter, any official of the Ex-1 Although only a plurality of the Court joins that portion of Justice O'Connor's opinion which finds standing (Part III), I must conclude that the Court finds standing since eight Justices join Part IV of the Court's opinion discussing the merits of appellees' constitutional claims.
Page: Index Previous 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007