Cite as: 529 U. S. 765 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
tected right. See Lujan, supra, at 560-561. A qui tam relator has suffered no such invasion—indeed, the "right" he seeks to vindicate does not even fully materialize until the litigation is completed and the relator prevails.3 This is not to suggest that Congress cannot define new legal rights, which in turn will confer standing to vindicate an injury caused to the claimant. See Warth, supra, at 500. As we have held in another context, however, an interest that is merely a "byproduct" of the suit itself cannot give rise to a cognizable injury in fact for Article III standing purposes. See Steel Co., supra, at 107 ("[A] plaintiff cannot achieve standing to litigate a substantive issue by bringing suit for the cost of bringing suit"); see also Diamond v. Charles, 476 U. S. 54, 69-71 (1986) (holding that assessment of attorney's fees against a party does not confer standing to pursue the action on appeal).
We believe, however, that adequate basis for the relator's suit for his bounty is to be found in the doctrine that the assignee of a claim has standing to assert the injury in fact suffered by the assignor. The FCA can reasonably be regarded as effecting a partial assignment of the Govern-ment's damages claim.4 Although we have never expressly recognized "representational standing" on the part of assignees, we have routinely entertained their suits, see, e. g.,
3 Blackstone noted, with regard to English qui tam actions, that "no particular person, A or B, has any right, claim or demand, in or upon [the bounty], till after action brought," and that the bounty constituted an "inchoate imperfect degree of property . . . [which] is not consummated till judgment." 2 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *437.
4 In addressing the Eleventh Amendment issue that we leave open today, the dissent suggests that we are asserting that a qui tam relator "is, in effect, suing as an assignee of the United States." Post, at 802 (opinion of Stevens, J.); see also post, at 796 (same). More precisely, we are asserting that a qui tam relator is, in effect, suing as a partial assignee of the United States.
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