Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

9-30-2016

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; Corporate Governance Network; Law & Society eJournals; Law & Society: Public Law eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence & Legal Philosophy eJournals; Political Science Network

Abstract

In Spokeo Inc v Robins the Supreme Court faced the question "whether Congress may confer Article III standing upon a plaintiff who suffers no concrete harm and who therefore could not otherwise invoke the jurisdiction of a federal court by authorizing a private right of action based on a bare violation of a federal statute" Put more simply can Congress recognize legal injuries that are not predicated on injuries in fact As this Essay demonstrates the Court would abuse the language of Article III would transgress on congressional authority and would exceed its own role in the constitutional structure by holding that Congress lacks the authority to create such legal injuries In addition to historical reasons given by other scholars there are strong separationofpowers reasons to respect congressional enactments conferring legal injury

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