Cite as: 529 U. S. 1 (2000)
Thomas, J., dissenting
ripe, Abbott Laboratories, supra, at 156; Gardner v. Toilet Goods Assn., supra, at 170; Toilet Goods Assn. v. Gardner, supra, at 160-161. See also Reno v. Catholic Social Services, Inc., 509 U. S. 43, 56-66 (1993) (similar). In line with this mode of analysis, the court below, after concluding that the Medicare Act does not preclude general federal-question jurisdiction over a preenforcement challenge to the Secretary's regulations, held that respondent's APA notice-and-comment challenge was ripe but that its constitutional vagueness claim was not. 143 F. 3d, at 1076-1077.
While I express no view on the proper application of ripeness doctrine to respondent's claims,14 I am confident that this method of analysis enjoys substantially more support in our cases than does the majority's approach, which prescribes a case-by-case hardship inquiry at the threshold stage of determining whether preenforcement review has been precluded by statute. See ante, at 20 (holding that § 1395ii does not incorporate § 405(h) where the aggrieved party "can obtain no review at all unless it can obtain judicial review in a § 1331 action"). While the majority's variation would be harmless if its hardship test were no more stringent than the hardship prong of ordinary ripeness doctrine, I presume its test is more exacting—otherwise the majority opinion is no more than a well-disguised application of ripeness doctrine to the facts of this case.15 At bottom, then, the majority superimposes a more burdensome hardship test on ordinary ripeness doctrine for aggrieved persons who
14 The Secretary did not seek review of the Court of Appeals' holding that respondent's APA notice-and-comment challenge is ripe, Pet. for Cert. I, and this Court denied respondent's cross-petition for certiorari seeking review of the Court of Appeals' holding that respondent's vagueness challenge is not ripe, 526 U. S. 1067 (1999).
15 The majority acknowledges that its hardship test is more burdensome than the hardship prong of ripeness doctrine in at least one respect. We are told that the relevant hardship is not that endured by the "individual plaintiff," but rather that confronted by the "class" of persons similarly situated to the individual plaintiff. Ante, at 22-23; see supra, at 42-43.
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