Justiciability

[Michael McConnell]

Doug Laycock writes:

>         There has to be a ripe case or controversy between plaintiffs and
> defendants in federal court, and in state courts under the Uniform
> Declaratory Judgment Act and all statutes modeled on it (which I think is
> all states).  I would think that randomly selected defendants is too much
> even for Alabama.  But who knows.

Okay, but I still want to know why there was a case and controversy
in the actual case, where it had already been held that the ostensible
defendants have no cognizable interest in the matter. Why are the
ACLU and the other "defendants" any better than randomly selected
persons? Should the appellate court reverse on the ground that there
was no jurisdiction?





-- Michael McConnell (U of Utah)