---
title: 'The Structure of Standing at 25'
date: '2012-11-05T10:53:48-06:00'
type: page
word_count: 309
char_count: 2151
tokens: 402
---

# The Structure of Standing at 25

Friday, February 22, 2013
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**University of Alabama School of Law**

On Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, renowned standing scholar and University of Alabama School of Law professor Heather Elliott hosted a symposium, **The Structure of Standing at 25.**

The symposium is framed as a tribute to Judge William A. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit, whose groundbreaking article “The Structure of Standing” was published nearly 25 years ago. Judge Fletcher made a devastating critique of standing doctrine in that article, and yet standing-to-sue remains a controversial and crucial threshold doctrine in the federal courts, most recently playing a huge role in lawsuits challenging the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), gay marriage, and warrantless wiretapping (electronic eavesdropping) by the security agencies of the U.S. government.

**Welcome**
Ken Randall
Dean and McMillan Professor of Law
The University of Alabama School of Law

**Introduction** 
Heather Elliott
The University of Alabama School of Law

**Panel I** 
**The Structure of Standing: History and Text**
Robert J. Pushaw, Jr., “Restructuring Standing: Fortuity and the Article III ‘Case’”
Ernest Young, “In Praise of Judge Fletcher – and of General Standing Principles”

**Keynote Talk** 
“Standing: Who Can Make a Court Listen?”
Judge William Fletcher, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Introduction by Judge William Pryor, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

**Panel II**
**The Structure of Standing: Private Rights, Public Rights, and Normative Standards**
Jonathan R. Siegel, “But What if the Injury-in-Fact Test is Normative?”
Maxwell L. Stearns, “‘Grains of Sand’ or ‘Butterfly Effect’: Standing and the Legitimacy of Precedent”
F. Andrew Hessick III, “Standing in Diversity”

**Panel III** 
**Suits By and Against Governmental Entities**
Thomas D. Rowe, Jr., “Exhuming the ‘Diversity Explanation’ of the Eleventh Amendment”
Tara L. Grove, “Why Congress Cannot Represent Itself in Court”
Heather Elliott, “State Standing in Federal Courts?”