Page:ACLU v. NSA Opinion (August 17, 2006), US District Court, East-Michigan.djvu/16

 Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. at 560. To establish standing under Article III, a plaintiff must satisfy the following three requirements: (1) "the plaintiff must have suffered an injury in fact - an invasion of a legally protected interest which is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical"; (2) "there must be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of", and (3) "it must be likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision." Id. at 560-561. The party invoking federal jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing these elements. Id. at 561.

"An association has standing to bring suit on behalf of its members when its members would otherwise have standing to sue in their own right, the interests it seeks to protect are germane to the organization's purpose, and neither the claim asserted nor the relief requested requires the participation of individual members in the lawsuit." Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services (TOC), Inc.,, 181 (2000) (citing Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm'n, , 342 (1977).

"At the pleading stage, general factual allegations of injury resulting from the defendant's conduct may suffice, for on a motion to dismiss we 'presume that general allegations embrace those specific facts that are necessary to support the claim.'" Id. at 561 (quoting Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation,, 889 (1990). "In response to a motion for summary judgment, however, the plaintiff can no longer rest upon such 'mere allegations,' but must 'set forth' by affidavit or other evidence 'specific facts' Fed.R.Civ.Proc. 56(e), which for purposes of the summary judgment motion will be taken to be true." Id. This court is persuaded that Plaintiffs in this case have set forth the necessary facts to have satisfied all three of the prerequisites listed above to establish standing. [*17]