Part One - The Structure of Government · Module 8
Limits on the Federal Judicial Power
Justiciability, taught after you know what the merits look like: advisory opinions, standing, ripeness, and mootness as the gatekeeping doctrines.
Topics
The prohibition of advisory opinions. Standing: constitutional and prudential requirements. Ripeness. Mootness.
Reading list
0 of 28 readings published · the rest are in preparation and will appear here as they are edited
- Note Hayburn's Case
- Note Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc.
- Note Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. v. Wallace
- Opinion Allen v. Wright
- Opinion Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife
- Opinion Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency
- Note City of Los Angeles v. Lyons
- Note Clapper v. Amnesty International USA
- Opinion TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez
- Note Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine
- Note Linda R. S. v. Richard D.
- Note Warth v. Seldin
- Note Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization
- Note Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Environmental Study Group, Inc.
- Note Singleton v. Wulff
- Note Barrows v. Jackson
- Note Craig v. Boren
- Note Gilmore v. Utah
- Note United States v. Richardson
- Note Flast v. Cohen
- Note Poe v. Ullman
- Note Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner
- Note United Public Workers v. Mitchell
- Note Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus
- Note Moore v. Ogilvie
- Note DeFunis v. Odegaard
- Note Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services
- Note United States Parole Commission v. Geraghty
- Current case California v. Trump, Nos. 26-1774 & 26-1779 (1st Cir. July 25, 2026) (state standing to challenge an executive order, and the scope of the remedy).
How to read this list
A case named without a marker is assigned as an opinion and is to be read in its entirety. Opinion (edited) means the Professor has cut it for length; the text on this site is the assigned text. Note means the case is not assigned as an opinion at all — its holding, its facts to the extent they matter, and its place in the doctrinal line are given in a note written for this course, and you are responsible for that note exactly as you are responsible for an assigned opinion. Most modules close with a Current case, a recent decision chosen because it shows the doctrine you have just read being applied at its live edge; current cases are assigned as opinions. You are responsible for all assigned required materials, including the notes, questions, problems and commentary that accompany the cases, whether or not we discuss them in class.