No Standing if Third Party Breaks Causal Chain; Second Chance to Show Standing

The Fourth Circuit has held that a gun-show promoter and a gun-show exhibitor do not have standing to challenge a county law that denies public funding to venues owned by third parties that display and sell guns.

The Fourth Circuit has held that a gun-show promoter and a gun-show exhibitor do not have standing to challenge a county law that denies public funding to venues owned by third parties that display and sell guns. Frank Krasner Ent., Ltd. V. Montgomery Co., MD, 401 F.3d 230 (4th Cir. 2005). The county law led the owner of the venue to stop leasing its property for the gun show. The court held that the plaintiffs had failed the causation and redressability prongs of Article III standing because an intermediary not before the court “stands directly between the plaintiffs and the challenged conduct in a way that breaks the causal chain.” The court observed that it was unaware of “a single case granting standing to a plaintiff challenging a government’s decision not to subsidize a third party, not before the court, with whom the plaintiff does business.”

A split D.C. Circuit has given a second chance to a plaintiff association to show that it has at least one member who would suffer direct injury from an FCC rule that would enable broadcasters to limit redistribution of digital television content. American Library Ass’n v. Federal Communications Comm’n, No. 04-1037, --- F.3d ----, 2005 WL 588994 (D.C. Cir. Mar 15, 2005). The majority opinion, written by Carter appointee Edwards and joined by Clinton appointee Rogers, found that plaintiff reasonably believed its standing was self-evident and should be allowed the supplement the record. The dissent by Reagan appointee Sentelle criticized the court for detailing a “road map” showing plaintiff how to “create standing where none is present on the record before us.”