OCTOBER TERM, 1997
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the seventh circuit
No. 96-643. Argued October 6, 1997—Decided March 4, 1998
Alleging that petitioner manufacturer had violated the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) by failing to file timely toxic- and hazardous-chemical storage and emission reports for past years, respondent environmental protection organization filed this private enforcement action for declaratory and injunctive relief under EPCRA's citizen-suit provision, 42 U. S. C. § 11046(a)(1). The District Court held that, because petitioner had brought its filings up to date by the time the complaint was filed, the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain a suit for a present violation; and that, because EPCRA does not allow suit for a purely historical violation, respondent's allegation of untimely filing was not a claim upon which relief could be granted. The Seventh Circuit reversed, concluding that EPCRA authorizes citizen suits for purely past violations.
Held: Because none of the relief sought would likely remedy respondent's alleged injury in fact, respondent lacks standing to maintain this suit, and this Court and the lower courts lack jurisdiction to entertain it. Pp. 88-110.
(a) The merits issue in this case—whether § 11046(a) permits citizen suits for purely past violations—is not also "jurisdictional," and so does not occupy the same status as standing to sue as a question that must be resolved first. It is firmly established that a district court's subject-matter jurisdiction is not defeated by the absence of a valid (as opposed to arguable) cause of action, see, e. g., Bell v. Hood, 327 U. S. 678, 682. Subject-matter jurisdiction exists if the right to recover will be sustained under one reading of the Constitution and laws and defeated under another, id., at 685, unless the claim clearly appears to be immaterial, wholly insubstantial and frivolous, or otherwise so devoid of merit as not to involve a federal controversy, see, e. g., Oneida Indian Nation of N. Y. v. County of Oneida, 414 U. S. 661, 666. Here, respondent wins under one construction of EPCRA and loses under another, and its claim is not frivolous or immaterial. It is unreasonable to read § 11046(c)— which provides that "[t]he district court shall have jurisdiction in actions brought under subsection (a) . . . to enforce [an EPCRA] requirement . . . and to impose any civil penalty provided for violation of that requirement"—as making all the elements of the § 11046(a) cause of ac-
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