Cite as: 524 U. S. 11 (1998)
Scalia, J., dissenting
ferentiated and common to all members of the public." 418 U. S., at 176-177 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).
It was alleged in Richardson that the Government had denied a right conferred by the Constitution, whereas respondents here assert a right conferred by statute—but of course "there is absolutely no basis for making the Article III inquiry turn on the source of the asserted right." Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U. S. 555, 576 (1992). The Court today distinguishes Richardson on a different basis— a basis that reduces it from a landmark constitutional holding to a curio. According to the Court, "Richardson focused upon taxpayer standing, . . . not voter standing." Ante, at 22. In addition to being a silly distinction, given the weighty governmental purpose underlying the "generalized grievance" prohibition—viz., to avoid "something in the nature of an Athenian democracy or a New England town meeting to oversee the conduct of the National Government by means of lawsuits in federal courts," 418 U. S., at 179— this is also a distinction that the Court in Richardson went out of its way explicitly to eliminate. It is true enough that the narrow question presented in Richardson was " '[w]hether a federal taxpayer has standing,' " id., at 167, n. 1. But the Richardson Court did not hold only, as the Court today suggests, that the plaintiff failed to qualify for the exception to the rule of no taxpayer standing established by the "logical nexus" test of Flast v. Cohen, 392 U. S. 83 (1968).* The plaintiff's complaint in Richardson had also alleged that he was " 'a member of the electorate,' " 418 U. S., at 167, n. 1, and he asserted injury in that capacity as well.
*That holding was inescapable since, as the Court made clear in another case handed down the same day, "the Flast nexus test is not applicable where the taxing and spending power is not challenged" (as in Richardson it was not). Schlesinger v. Reservists Comm. to Stop the War, 418 U. S. 208, 225, n. 15 (1974).
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