Cite as: 523 U. S. 83 (1998)
Stevens, J., concurring in judgment
reluctant to address the constitutional question, opted to decide the statutory question first so as to avoid the constitutional question if possible:
"The issue [of the meaning of § 812] is a critical one, for if the District Court correctly understood and applied § 812 [in denying respondents standing under the statute], we do not reach the question whether the minimum requirements of Art. III have been satisfied. If the Court of Appeals is correct [in holding that respondents have statutory standing], however, then the constitutional question is squarely presented." Id., at 101.
See also Bennett v. Spear, 520 U. S. 154, 164 (1997) (footnote omitted) (opinion of Scalia, J.) (stating that "[t]he first question in the present case is whether the [Endangered Species Act's] citizen-suit provision . . . negates the zone-of-interests test," and turning to the constitutional standing question only after determining that standing existed under the statute); Food and Commercial Workers v. Brown Group, Inc., 517 U. S. 544, 548-550 (1996) (analyzing the statutory question before turning to the constitutional standing question); Cross-Sound Ferry Services, Inc. v. ICC, 934 F. 2d 327, 341 (CADC 1991) (Thomas, J., concurring in part and concurring in denial of petition for review) (courts exceed the scope of their power "only if the ground passed over is jurisdictional and the ground rested upon is non-jurisdictional, for courts properly rest on one jurisdictional ground instead of another"). Thus, our precedents clearly support the proposition that, given a choice between two jurisdictional questions—one statutory and the other constitutional—the Court has the power to answer the statutory question first.
Rather than framing the question in terms of "jurisdiction," it is also possible to characterize the statutory issue in this case as whether respondent's complaint states a "cause
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