Page:Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer.pdf/14

14 personally impose financial penalties for violations of the Reservation Rule go far beyond the role that Congress envisioned for private plaintiffs under the ADA. Without a violation of her own rights, Laufer lacks standing to sue hotels under the ADA. Ensuring and monitoring compliance with the law is a function of a Government official, not a private person who does not assert a violation of her own rights.

Standing ensures that courts decide disputes over violations of a person’s rights, not a defendant’s compliance with the law in the abstract. Because Laufer has not asserted a violation of a right owed to her, she has no standing to bring her Reservation Rule claims. The Court should not have avoided reaching that conclusion due to Laufer’s eleventh-hour tactics. I respectfully concur in the judgment because I would vacate and remand, with instructions to dismiss for lack of standing. , concurring in the judgment.

I agree with the Court that this case is moot and that it should be resolved on that basis. But the Court goes further, ordering vacatur of the judgment of the Court of Appeals under United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U. S. 36 (1950). See. In my view, when mootness ends an appeal, the question of what to do with the lower court’s judgment, if anything, raises a separate issue that must be addressed separately.

Mootness and vacatur are distinct concepts. Start with mootness. The doctrine of mootness stems from Article III of the Constitution, which permits federal courts to adjudicate only “Cases” and “Controversies.” “Simply stated, a case is moot when the issues presented are no longer ‘live’ or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome.” Powell v. McCormack, 395 U. S. 486, 496 (1969). If a case