National Treasury Employees Union v. U.S.

• Decision Date: 13 December 1996
• Docket Number: No. 96-5217,96-5217
• Citation: 101 F.3d 1423,322 U.S.App. D.C. 135
• Parties: 153 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3025, 322 U.S.App.D.C. 135, 65 USLW 2411 NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION, et al., Appellants v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 1423

101 F.3d 1423

153 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 3025, 322 U.S.App.D.C.

135, 65 USLW 2411

NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION, et al., Appellants v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.

No. 96-5217.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Oct. 25, 1996.

Decided Dec. 13, 1996.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 96cv00624).

Gregory O'Duden, General Counsel, argued the cause for appellants, with whom Elaine D. Kaplan, Deputy General Counsel, and Barbara A. Atkin, Associate General Counsel, Washington, DC, were on the briefs.

Stephen W. Preston, Attorney, United States Department of Justice, argued the cause for appellee, with whom Frank W. Hunger, Assistant Attorney General, Eric H. Holder, Jr., United States Attorney, and Douglas N. Letter, Litigation Counsel, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, were on the brief.

Before: SENTELLE, HENDERSON and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge SENTELLE.

Opinion concurring in Part II B filed by Circuit Judge ROGERS.

SENTELLE, Circuit Judge:

The National Treasury Employees Union ("NTEU" or "Union"), its president, and two of its members appeal from the dismissal of their suit challenging the constitutionality of the Line Item Veto Act, Pub.L. No. 104-130, 100 Stat. 1200 (codified at 2 U.S.C. §§ 691-692 (1996)), for lack of Article III standing. We affirm, holding that appellants' alleged injury is neither sufficiently concrete nor imminent to create a justiciable controversy.

I. Background

This case arises out of an attempt by the NTEU, its president Robert Tobias, and two of its individual members to challenge the constitutionality of the Line Item Veto Act. NTEU is a labor organization representing 140,000 federal employees in various agencies and departments within the executive branch. Like private sector unions, NTEU works to represent employees through such traditional labor union activity as collective bargaining and grievance arbitration. However, because of the nature of public sector employment, in which Congress sets by law most of the key conditions of employment in the workforce, NTEU also seeks to protect its members' employment-related interests in the legislative appropriations process.

The Line Item Veto Act provides that "the President may, with respect to any bill or joint resolution that has been signed into law pursuant to Article I, section 7, of the Constitution of the United States, cancel in whole (1) any dollar amount of discretionary budget authority; (2) any item of new direct spending; or (3) any limited tax benefit." 2 U.S.C. § 691(a). The President must notify Congress of any exercise of his cancellation power under the Act within five calendar days (excluding Sundays) of the enactment of the law containing the canceled item. Id. § 691(a)(3)(B). Congress may then nullify the President's cancellation by passing a "disapproval bill." Id. § 691b(a). Because the disapproval bill may be vetoed by the President, a President's exercise of his cancellation power will stand, as a practical matter, if supported by one-third plus one of the members of either House of Congress.

By its terms, the Line Item Veto Act will not take effect until the earlier of the enactment of a seven-year balanced budget bill or January 1, 1997. Id. § 691 note. Nevertheless, on April 9, 1996, the day the Line Item Veto Act was signed into law, appellants brought suit against the United States in federal district court asking the court to declare the Act unconstitutional and enjoin its enforcement. According to appellants, the Line Item Veto Act violates the separation of powers, U.S. CONST. art. I, §§ 7, 8, the Appropriations Clause, id. § 9, cl. 7, and the grant to each House of Congress of the power to "determine the Rules of its Proceedings," id. § 5.

In their complaint, appellants allege several injuries that they contend are sufficient to satisfy the Article III standing requirement of "injury in fact." First, NTEU alleges that "[a]s a result of the Act, NTEU must modify its representational activities to devote additional resources--including time, money, and effort--to gain the support of the Executive Branch for measures that will benefit its members." Appellants' Amended Complaint at 8. Second, NTEU alleges that "the Act interferes with NTEU's ability to influence the passage of favorable legislation" by "mak[ing] it more difficult for NTEU to achieve favorable legislative treatment for its constituents without securing the advance support of the Executive Branch" for such legislation. Id. at 9. These allegations are supported by an affidavit filed by Robert M. Tobias, National President of NTEU, stating that

enactment of the Line Item Veto Act has dramatically changed the landscape of the legislative process and thus, necessarily, affects the way NTEU does business regarding appropriations measures of interest to our members.... By transferring the power to make spending decisions from Congress to the President, the regime established by the Line Item Veto Act most certainly impairs the Union's ability to accomplish its key purpose of representing effectively its members' interests in the appropriations process. NTEU's work is so impeded because the unlawful Act creates a new scheme under which benefits achieved though the legislative process can be entirely negated through the President's item veto power.... [T]o counter the new regime established by the Act and to protect against the threat of an item veto, NTEU must now expend additional time and money ... to help ensure that the President does not thwart our legislative advocacy through the item veto.

Tobias Aff. pp 12, 13.

In addition to the injury inflicted upon the Union, President Tobias alleges that the Line Item Veto Act injures him "as an individual" by impairing his ability "as the elected National President of NTEU ... to advance the interests of the Union." Id. p 16. Similarly, two individual members of the Union allege that they "will be injured" because the Line Item Veto Act reduces NTEU's ability to advocate its members' views and requires NTEU to divert resources away from other union services of interest to members. Appellants' Amended Complaint at 9. Finally, President Tobias and the two individual members of the Union allege that the Line Item Veto Act injures them "in their capacity as voters" in that "their elected representatives' vote has lost value in the lawmaking and rulemaking process." Id.

The United States moved to dismiss this action on the alternative grounds that appellants lack standing under Article III of the Constitution and that the matter was "currently nonjusticiable." On July 3, 1996, the district court granted the government's motion to dismiss for lack of Article III standing, reasoning that plaintiffs' alleged injuries are "too speculative and remote" to constitute an "injury sufficient to confer standing on the plaintiffs." National Treasury Employees Union v. United States, 929 F.Supp. 484, 488 (D.D.C.1996) (mem.) (hereinafter NTEU). While recognizing that "the Act may change the way [NTEU] chooses to represent its members," the court concluded that the Act "does not perceptibly impair [NTEU's] representation efforts." Id. The court distinguished the line of cases recognizing "a concrete and demonstrable injury arising from a purportedly illegal action [that] increases the resources the group must devote to programs independent of its suit challenging the action" on the ground that in each of those cases the purportedly illegal action taken by the defendants "was at loggerheads with" and "squarely countered the plaintiffs' organizational objective." Id. at 488-89.

The district court further reasoned that the alleged injury to NTEU was not "real and immediate," but instead was "wholly speculative." Id. at 489. According to the court, "plaintiffs' ultimate concerns will be realized only in the event that the President exercises the cancellation authority with respect to a particular appropriation affecting them" and Congress is unable to pass a disapproval bill to override the item veto. Id. The court rejected NTEU's argument that it was injured by the fact that the item veto authority "places the appropriations process under the Sword of Damocles" to which NTEU must now respond in order to represent its members adequately. Id. Because the President presently has a veto authority that may be exercised "to the detriment of NTEU members," id., the district court was not convinced that the addition of an item veto power would "perceptibly impair the plaintiffs' representation efforts," id. at 490.

This appeal challenges the district court's dismissal of appellants' complaint for lack of standing. While appellants purport to argue that NTEU as well as the individual plaintiffs have standing to sue, the only argument seriously advanced is that NTEU has standing to sue on its own behalf. Therefore, we consider only that question. See Alabama Power Co. v. Gorsuch, 672 F.2d 1, 7 (D.C.Cir.1982) (per curiam) ("Courts have long declined to render decisions on important questions of far-reaching significance which have not been argued by the party who might benefit therefrom.").

II. Analysis

Article III of the federal Constitution vests "[t]he judicial Power of the United States ... in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may ... establish." U.S. CONST. art. III, § 1. This judicial power extends only to "Cases" and "Controversies." Id. § 2. In an attempt to give meaning to Article III's case-or-controversy requirement, the courts have developed a series of principles termed "justiciability doctrines," among which are standing ripeness, mootness, and the political question doctrine. Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 750, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 3324, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984). These doctrines are composed both of prudential elements...