Raines v. Byrd

Raines v. Byrd
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued May 27, 1997 Decided June 26, 1997
Full case name	Raines v. Byrd
Citations	521 U.S. 811 (more) 117 S. Ct. 2312; 138 L. Ed. 2d 849
Case history
Prior	Byrd v. Raines, 956 F. Supp. 25 (D.D.C. 1997)
Subsequent	Clinton v. City of New York
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Rehnquist, joined by O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg
Concurrence	Souter, joined by Ginsburg
Dissent	Stevens
Dissent	Breyer

Raines v. Byrd, 521 U.S. 811 (1997), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held individual members of Congress do not automatically have standing to litigate the constitutionality of laws affecting Congress as a whole.^[1]

Background of the case[]

The Line Item Veto Act of 1996 allowed the president to nullify certain provisions of appropriations bills, and disallowed the use of funds from canceled provisions for offsetting deficit spending in other areas.

At its passage, the Act was politically controversial, with many Democrats breaking with Clinton to oppose it. Of the opposition, six members of Congress, including Republican Mark Hatfield, sued to prevent use of the line-item veto. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found the Act unconstitutional.^[2]

Opinion of the Court[]

The Supreme Court held that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue, as they had not suffered any . The courts reasoning held that individual members of Congress were subject to strict limits on their ability to sue, particularly in a dispute between different branches of government.^[1]

Subsequent events[]

After taking effect, the Act was in 1998 found unconstitutional in Clinton v. City of New York.

References[]

External links[]

• Text of Raines v. Byrd, 521 U.S. 811 (1997) is available from: Google Scholar  Justia  Library of Congress  Oyez (oral argument audio) 

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