Abstract
When the interests of a state, or of the federal government, are at issue in a lawsuit, those interests are typically represented by the Executive branch. But not always: The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that states, and the federal government, may delegate their claims to non-governmental litigants in some circumstances. But the Court has never defined the exact boundaries of when stand-in standing is permitted. And states have recently begun to exploit this doctrinal uncertainty, by enacting laws that are arguably, and in some cases flagrantly, unconstitutional, but outsourcing the enforcement of those laws to private individuals. The avowed goal of the architects of these laws is to circumvent Ex Parte Young, and prevent pre-enforcement judicial review of these laws, by depriving state officials of enforcement powers. This article proposes a solution: a coherent, comprehensive doctrine of stand-in standing.
Repository Citation
Matthew I. Hall,
Stand-In Standing
, 77 Fla. L. Rev. 1785
(2025),
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/fac_artchop/1749
Previously posted on SSRN.