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45 Ga. L. Rev. [i] (2010-2011)

handle is hein.journals/geolr45 and id is 1 raw text is: GEORGIA LAW REVIEW VOLUME 45 FALL 2010 NUMBER 1 ARTICLES Limiting Article III Standing to Accidental Plaintiffs: Lessons from Environmental and Animal Law Cases ................... Robert J. Pushaw, Jr. 1 According to the Supreme Court, Article III's extension of judicial Power to Cases and Controversies limits standing to plaintiffs who can demonstrate an individualized injury in fact that was caused by the defendant and that is judicially redressable. Article III's text and history, however, do not mention injury, causation, or redressability. Furthermore, these standards are malleable and have been applied to achieve ideological goals, especially in cases involving environmental and animal-welfare laws. Most notably, the Court has recognized an injury in fact to one's aesthetic enjoyment of nature, but determining such an injury is arbitrary because aesthetics is a matter of personal taste. Judges have exercised similar unbridled discretion in ascertaining causation and redressability. The result has often been a judicial takeover of important policy issues. Standing decisions are so inconsistent and politicized that most scholars have recommended abandoning the doctrine. However, stare decisis will prevent such a radical change. Therefore, I offer a more realistic approach that retains the existing standing framework but modifies its elements. My touchstone is the historical meaning of an Article III case, which restricts court access to plaintiffs whose legal rights have been invaded fortuitously because of a chance event beyond their control. Applying this test, courts would find an injury in fact only when it befell a plaintiff by accident, not when someone manufactured a lawsuit by claiming aesthetic harm. Insisting on a fortuitous injury would also make it

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