American Postal Workers Union v. Frank

• Decision Date: 09 April 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-1633,91-1633
• Citation: 968 F.2d 1373
• Parties: 140 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2724, 61 USLW 2044, 122 Lab.Cas. P 10,261, 7 IER Cases 986 AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Anthony M. FRANK, et al., Defendants, Appellees. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 1373

968 F.2d 1373

140 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2724, 61 USLW 2044,

122 Lab.Cas. P 10,261,

7 IER Cases 986

AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. Anthony M. FRANK, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 91-1633.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard April 9, 1992.

Decided July 6, 1992.

James F. Lamond, Newton, Mass., for plaintiffs, appellants.

Robert V. Zener, Appellate Litigation Counsel, with whom Stuart M. Gerson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Washington, D.C., Wayne A. Budd, United States Attorney, Boston, Mass., R. Andrew German, Asst. Gen. Counsel, and Suzanne Hassell Milton Washington, D.C., were on brief for defendants, appellees.

Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge, and YOUNG, ^* District Judge.

FRANK M. COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge.

The American Postal Workers Union seeks declaratory and injunctive relief requiring the United States Postal Service to stop mandatory drug testing of applicants for employment. ¹ Because we find that the Union lacks standing, we are constrained to dismiss this case without reaching the sensitive constitutional issue at the heart of the litigation.

I. Background

This lawsuit challenges, as violative of Fourth Amendment privacy rights, the Postal Service's policy of requiring job applicants to submit to urinalysis drug testing. The Union represents individuals who presently are postal service employees. Some of those employees underwent drug testing before they were hired, but this lawsuit does not request damages for the asserted violation of their rights. Rather, the Union seeks a declaration that the policy is unconstitutional, and an injunction barring future testing of applicants. The Union thus pursues remedies that will benefit only would-be Union members.

The district court, in a ruling from the bench, granted summary judgment for the Postal Service. Although the court referred to "a problem with standing," it nevertheless reached the merits to conclude that the balance of interests weighed in favor of the Postal Service's need to exclude drug-using individuals from employment. Accordingly, the court held that the Postal Service's pre-employment drug testing is a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. See Tr. of Hearing, April 22, 1991, at 13.

II. Discussion

A. Principles of Standing

Case or Controversy

Article III of the Constitution confines federal courts to deciding only actual cases and controversies. Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 750, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 3324, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984). This limitation on federal jurisdiction underlies the standing doctrine, which is designed to assure that issues are presented to the court "in the context of a specific live grievance," Golden v. Zwickler, 394 U.S. 103, 110, 89 S.Ct. 956, 960, 22 L.Ed.2d 113 (1969). Standing is thus a threshold question in every federal case, requiring the court to determine "whether the plaintiff has 'alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy' as to warrant his invocation of federal-court jurisdiction and to justify exercise of the court's remedial powers on his behalf." Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 498-99, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2205, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975) (emphasis in original) (quoting Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204, 82 S.Ct. 691, 703, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962)).

The standing inquiry has three elements. A litigant must " 'show that he personally has suffered some actual or threatened injury as a result of the putatively illegal conduct of the defendant' and that the injury 'fairly can be traced to the challenged action' and 'is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision.' " Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church & State, 454 U.S. 464, 472, 102 S.Ct. 752, 758, 70 L.Ed.2d 700 (1982) (footnote and citations omitted). See also County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1661, 1667, 114 L.Ed.2d 49 (1991); Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. at 751, 104 S.Ct. at 3324; Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Public Service Comm'n, 906 F.2d 25, 36 (1st Cir.1990).

The personal injury prong of the inquiry has triggered the most Supreme Court scrutiny and a substantial body of precedent devoted to defining the nature of the requisite harm. United States v. AVX Corp., 962 F.2d 108, 113-14 (1st Cir.1992), (citing cases). The alleged injury, for example, must be real and immediate rather than abstract or conjectural. Id. A mere interest in a situation--no matter how deeply felt, or how important the issue--will not substitute for actual injury. Id. The Court has noted that

the decision to seek review must be placed "in the hands of those who have a direct stake in the outcome." Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 740 [92 S.Ct. 1361, 1369, 31 L.Ed.2d 636] (1972). It is not to be placed in the hands of "concerned bystanders," who will use it simply as a "vehicle for the vindication of value interests." United States v. SCRAP, 412 U.S. 669, 687 [93 S.Ct. 2405, 2416, 37 L.Ed.2d 254] (1973).

Diamond v. Charles, 476 U.S. 54, 62, 106 S.Ct. 1697, 1703, 90 L.Ed.2d 48 (1986).

The less visited second and third components of the standing inquiry--"traceability" and "redressability"--denote two forms of causation. "[T]he former examines the causal connection between the assertedly unlawful conduct and the alleged injury, whereas the latter examines the causal connection between the alleged injury and the judicial relief requested." Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. at 753 n. 19, 104 S.Ct. at 3325 n. 19. See also Haitian Refugee Center v. Gracey, 809 F.2d 794, 798-99 (D.C.Cir.1987).

When a litigant has met all three requirements, it can fairly be assumed that a case or controversy has been established, and that "the particular plaintiff is entitled to an adjudication of the particular claims asserted," Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. at 752, 104 S.Ct. at 3325.

Associational Standing

The Union does not contend that it has suffered any "personal" injury from the drug testing. Instead, it invokes the doctrine of "associational," or "representational," standing, which permits organizations, in certain circumstances, to premise standing entirely upon injuries suffered by their members. UAW v. Brock, 477 U.S. 274, 281-82, 106 S.Ct. 2523, 2528-29, 91 L.Ed.2d 228 (1986); Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm'n, 432 U.S. 333, 342-43, 97 S.Ct. 2434, 2440-41, 53 L.Ed.2d 383 (1977); Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 511, 95 S.Ct. at 2211; AVX, 962 F.2d at 116. This doctrine does not eliminate the constitutional requirement of a live case or controversy between the parties, but it recognizes that injury to an organization's members may satisfy Article III and allow the organization to litigate in federal court on their behalf. Brock, 477 U.S. at 281, 106 S.Ct. at 2528.

The test for associational standing is--like the basic standing inquiry--tripartite. The plaintiff association must show that (a) at least one of its members possesses standing to sue in his or her own right--i.e., that the member can satisfy the three requirements of injury, traceability and redressability; (b) the interests the suit seeks to vindicate are germane to its purpose; and (c) neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit. Brock, 477 U.S. at 282, 106 S.Ct. at 2528; Hunt, 432 U.S. at 343, 97 S.Ct. at 2441; AVX, 962 F.2d at 116.

To establish its right to bring the instant action, the Union must demonstrate compliance with these prerequisites. As we discuss in Section B below, it cannot do so. Because the Union members are unable to meet the redressability prong of the basic standing inquiry, they lack standing. As a result, the Union is unable to fulfill the first condition for associational standing--that at least one member possess standing to sue as an individual. In light of this deficiency, we do not consider whether the Union could satisfy the other two prongs of the associational standing test. ²

B. Union Members' Standing

If the question at this juncture were simply whether any of the Union's members could allege harm from the disputed policy, we might well resolve the standing issue in its favor. Among the Union's present membership are individuals who submitted to the drug test. These members have a concrete claim of injury--that they were subjected to an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. ³

Supreme Court caselaw teaches, however, that while the past injury suffered by these members would give them standing to bring actions for damages, it is an insufficient predicate for equitable relief. In Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 111, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 1670, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983), the Court reaffirmed the principle that past exposure to harm will not, in and of itself, confer standing upon a litigant to obtain equitable relief "[a]bsent a sufficient likelihood that he will again be wronged in a similar way." See also Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, --- U.S. ----, ----, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 2138, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992); Rizzo v. Goode, 423 U.S. 362, 371-73, 96 S.Ct. 598, 604-05, 46 L.Ed.2d 561 (1976); O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 495-96, 94 S.Ct. 669, 676, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974).

The plaintiff in Lyons alleged that police officers who stopped him for a traffic violation unconstitutionally applied a chokehold that rendered him unconscious and damaged his larynx. He sued the City of Los Angeles and four officers, and obtained a preliminary injunction barring use of the procedure except when death or serious bodily injury was threatened.

The Supreme Court reversed. It found that Lyons "has failed to demonstrate a case or controversy with the City that would justify the equitable relief sought," 461 U.S. at 105, 103 S.Ct. at 1667. Lyons's standing to seek such relief, the Court held, depended upon whether "he is realistically threatened by a repetition of his experience of October 1976," 461 U.S. at 109, 103 S.Ct. at 1669. See also id. at 105, 103...