Cite as: 523 U. S. 83 (1998)
Stevens, J., concurring in judgment
has the power to decide whether a cause of action exists even when it is unclear whether the plaintiff has standing.9
National Railroad Passenger Corp. also makes it clear that we have the power to decide this question before addressing other threshold issues. In that case, we were faced with the interrelated questions of "whether the Amtrak Act can be read to create a private right of action to enforce compliance with its provisions; whether a federal district court has jurisdiction under the terms of the Act to entertain such a suit [under 28 U. S. C. § 1337 10]; and whether respondent has [statutory] standing to bring such a suit." 414 U. S., at 455-456. In choosing its method of analysis, the Court stated:
even though it was unclear whether there was a remedy, the Court held that federal courts have jurisdiction to determine whether a cause of action exists. 327 U. S., at 685.
9 The Court incorrectly states that I "used to understand the fundamental distinction between arguing no cause of action and arguing no Article III redressability," ante, at 96. The Court gives me too much credit. I have never understood any fundamental difference between arguing: (1) plaintiff's complaint does not allege a cause of action because the law does "not provide a remedy" for the plaintiff's injury; and (2) plaintiff's injury is "not redressable." In Lake Country Estates, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 440 U. S. 391, 398 (1979), we stated that the absence of a remedy, i. e., the lack of redressability, was not the sort of jurisdictional issue that the Court raises on its own motion. That was the law when that case was decided, and it would still be the law today if the Court had not supplemented the standing analysis set forth in Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, 204 (1962), with its current fascination with "redressability." What has changed is not the admittedly imperfect state of my understanding, but rather the state of the Court's standing doctrine.
10 Section 1337 states, in relevant part: "[D]istrict courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action or proceeding arising under any Act of Congress regulating commerce or protecting trade and commerce against restraints and monopolies." 28 U. S. C. § 1337(a); see also Potomac Passengers Assn. v. Chesapeake & Ohio R. Co., 475 F. 2d 325, 339 (CADC 1973), rev'd on other grounds, National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. National Assn. of Railroad Passengers, 414 U. S. 453 (1974).
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