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the citizen suit lies in the present or the future, not in the past"). In short, Steel Co. held that private plaintiffs, unlike the Federal Government, may not sue to assess penalties for wholly past violations, but our decision in that case did not reach the issue of standing to seek penalties for violations that are ongoing at the time of the complaint and that could continue into the future if undeterred.4
4 In insisting that the redressability requirement is not met, the dissent relies heavily on Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 U. S. 614 (1973). That reliance is sorely misplaced. In Linda R. S., the mother of an out-of-wedlock child filed suit to force a district attorney to bring a criminal prosecution against the absentee father for failure to pay child support. Id., at 616. In finding that the mother lacked standing to seek this extraordinary remedy, the Court drew attention to "the special status of criminal prosecutions in our system," id., at 619, and carefully limited its holding to the "unique context of a challenge to [the nonenforcement of] a criminal statute," id., at 617. Furthermore, as to redressability, the relief sought in Linda R. S.—a prosecution which, if successful, would automatically land the delinquent father in jail for a fixed term, id., at 618, with predictably negative effects on his earning power—would scarcely remedy the plaintiff's lack of child support payments. In this regard, the Court contrasted "the civil contempt model whereby the defendant 'keeps the keys to the jail in his own pocket' and may be released whenever he com-plies with his legal obligations." Ibid. The dissent's contention, post, at 204, that "precisely the same situation exists here" as in Linda R. S. is, to say the least, extravagant.
Putting aside its mistaken reliance on Linda R. S., the dissent's broader charge that citizen suits for civil penalties under the Act carry "grave implications for democratic governance," post, at 202, seems to us over-drawn. Certainly the Federal Executive Branch does not share the dissent's view that such suits dissipate its authority to enforce the law. In fact, the Department of Justice has endorsed this citizen suit from the outset, submitting amicus briefs in support of FOE in the District Court, the Court of Appeals, and this Court. See supra, at 177, 179. As we have already noted, supra, at 175, the Federal Government retains the power to foreclose a citizen suit by undertaking its own action. 33 U. S. C. § 1365(b)(1)(B). And if the Executive Branch opposes a particular citizen suit, the statute allows the Administrator of the EPA to "intervene as a matter of right" and bring the Government's views to the attention of the court. § 1365(c)(2).
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