Cite as: 509 U. S. 43 (1993)
Stevens, J., dissenting
another day spent in the shadows for respondents, with the attendant costs of that way of life. See supra, at 78-79. Even more important, with each passing day, the clock on the application period continued to run, increasing the risk that review, when it came, would be meaningless because the application period had already expired. See Ayuda, 292 U. S. App. D. C., at 178, 948 F. 2d, at 770 (Wald, J., dissenting).3 Indeed, the dilemma respondents find themselves in today speaks volumes about the costs of deferring review in this situation. Cf. Toilet Goods Assn., 387 U. S., at 164 (challenge not ripe where "no irremediable adverse consequences flow from requiring a later challenge").
Under Abbott Laboratories, then, I think it plain that respondents' claims were ripe for adjudication at the time they were filed. The Court's contrary holding, which seems to rest on the premise that respondents cannot challenge a condition of legalization until they have satisfied all other conditions, see ante, at 58-59, is at odds not only with our ripeness case law, but also with our more general understanding of the way in which government regulation affects the regulated. In Northeastern Fla. Chapter, Associated Gen. Contractors of America v. Jacksonville, 508 U. S. 656 (1993), for instance, we held that a class of contractors could challenge an ordinance making it more difficult for them to compete for public business without making any showing that class members were actually in a position to receive such business,
3 "Absent judicial action, the period for filing for IRCA legalization would have ended and thousands of persons would have lost their chance for amnesty. In purely human terms, it is difficult—perhaps impossible— for those of us fortunate enough to have been born in this country to appreciate fully the value of that lost opportunity. For undocumented aliens, IRCA offered a one-time chance to come out of hiding, to stop running, to 'belong' to America. The hardship of withholding judicial review is as severe as any that I have encountered in more than a decade of administrative review." 292 U. S. App. D. C., at 178, 948 F. 2d, at 770 (Wald, J., dissenting).
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