Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/607

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 437 (1992)

449

Opinion of the Court

allegations of direct injury to the State itself. Moreover, we have rejected a similar argument in Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm’n, 432 U. S. 333 (1977). In Hunt, the Washington State Apple Advertising Commission brought suit to declare as violative of the Commerce Clause a North Carolina statute requiring that all apples sold or shipped into North Carolina in closed containers be identified by no grade other than the applicable federal grade or a designation that the apples were not graded. The commission was a statutory agency designed for the promotion and protection of the Washington State apple industry and composed of 13 state growers and dealers chosen from electoral districts by their fellow growers and dealers, all of whom by mandatory assessments financed the commission’s operations. The North Carolina officials named in the suit vigorously contested the commission’s standing, either in its own right or on behalf of the apple industry it represented, arguing that it lacked a “personal stake” in the litigation because, as a state agency, it was “not itself engaged in the production and sale of Washington apples or their shipment into North Carolina.” Id., at 341. After addressing the commission’s analogues to associational standing, we turned to the commission’s allegations of direct injury: “Finally, we note that the interests of the Commission itself may be adversely affected by the outcome of this litigation. The annual assessments paid to the Commission are tied to the volume of apples grown and packaged as ‘Washington Apples.’ In the event the North Carolina statute results in a contraction of the market for Washington apples or prevents any market expansion that might otherwise occur, it could reduce the amount of the assessments due the Commission and used to support its activities. This financial nexus between the interests of the Commission and its constituents coalesces with the other factors noted above to ‘assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the