Cite as: 506 U. S. 194 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
If § 1915 yields no "inability to pay" standard applicable to artificial entities, neither does it guide courts in determining when to "pierce the veil" of the entity, that is, when to look beyond the entity to its owners or members in determining ability to pay. Because courts would necessarily have to do just this to avoid abuse, congressional silence on the subject indicates that Congress simply was not thinking in terms of granting in forma pauperis status to artificial entities.
While the courts that have nonetheless held § 1915 applicable to artificial entities have devised their own tests for telling when to "pierce the veil" for a look at individual members or owners, none of their tests is based on the language of § 1915 or on any assumption implicit in it. For example, the leading opinion on the subject, a dissent from a majority opinion that never reached the issue, appears to frame the issue as whether the individual shareholders of a corporation "have adopted the corporate form as a subterfuge to avoid the payment of court costs." S. O. U. P., Inc. v. FTC, 146 U. S. App. D. C. 66, 68, 449 F. 2d 1142, 1144 (1971) (Bazelon, C. J., dissenting) (footnote omitted). While this test certainly emphasizes why we could hardly hold that a court should never look beyond the organization to its individuals, it stems from nothing in § 1915 suggesting that entities claiming to have slight assets should be treated in forma pauperis unless they were organized to cheat the courts.9
United States v. Kras, 409 U. S. 434, 440 (1973), would seem to foreclose speculation about such a motive.
9 Two other decisions allowing organizations to proceed in forma pauperis appear to place importance on the "public interest" character of the organization or the litigation in question. See River Valley, Inc. v. Dubuque County, 63 F. R. D. 123, 125 (ND Iowa 1974) (noting that the corporation at issue "was formed . . . for the purpose of assisting the poor and underprivileged"); Harlem River Consumers Cooperative, Inc. v. Associated Grocers of Harlem, Inc., 71 F. R. D. 93, 96 (SDNY 1976) (finding that "[t]here is a public interest quality to the stated goal for which the corporation was formed" and that "there is a public interest aspect to any private suit for treble damages under the antitrust laws"). The language of
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