More sitting, less standing?

In United States v. Texas, last Friday, the Supreme Court reversed a Fifth Circuit judgment because Texas had no standing to bring a particular claim about immigration policy. The case echoes the proceedings in California v. Texas, a 2021 matter in which the Supreme Court also reversed a Fifth Circuit judgment for lack of standing — in that case, an issue about the enforceability of the Affordable Care Act.

As Texas’s Attorney General, Greg Abbott famously quipped: “I go into the office in the morning. I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home.” In a recent interview, I suggest that these opinions are a yellow light for that approach to public-law litigation; Mark Stern makes a similar point in more colorful language for Slate. Time will tell whether that traffic signal is heeded.