The National Council of Nonprofits

[Doug McKenna]

Boris Veytsman wrote

>| The thing is, American courts, like British ones, have the concept of
>| standing: you cannot sue or join a suit unless you are harmed, even if
>| you sympathize with the plaintiffs.  At present TUG does not receive
>| any federal funds, so it is unaffected by the freeze.  Thus we do not
>| have standing and cannot join the suit.
>| 
>| This is, of course, my personal opinion: the Board did not discuss the
>| issue.

Yes, TUG doesn't have any horse in the current chaotic race re federal funds, and likely won't.

But just to flesh out the issue, as someone who has argued principles of standing in appellate courts, both federal and state, I can say that standing is more complicated than that.

There is also something called "organizational standing," where an umbrella organization has standing to sue if any of its members would have standing to sue.  Not all of its members, just some.  See, e.g.,

   <http://dev.mplp.org/cort/private/events/CORT-Organizational-Standing-in-Federal-Litigation.pdf>

The point being that a person or entity can join an umbrella organization and support its goals, which can include litigation on behalf of other or all members, even though that person or entity by itself might not have standing in a particular situation the lawsuit is addressing.

This is why the American Medical Association can sue the government about a medical issue, even though not all doctors in that organization are harmed in some way by that issue.  Only some of them need be harmed, and according to the above URL, that number can be as low as a single member.  If the organization wins, then every member  benefits, if even only indirectly or hypothetically.

Same goes for the Council of Non-Profits that Jonathan Fine mentioned, whose members no doubt include many non-profits that don't rely on federal funds.

For what it's worth, as I am (still) not a lawyer.


Doug McKenna