| Venue: | SCOTUS |
| Facts: | AZ has a law saying English is the official language. Yniguez is a state employee (insurance claims manager), and she files suit claiming this is a 1A and 14A problem. The AZ AG issues an opinion saying that she's free to speak other languages in the delivery of government services, and that Yniguez need not fear retribution. The Governor says it won't be enforced. |
| Posture: | District court says the AZ measure is too broad. The governor declines to appeal. 9th Cir. decides it will hear the case anyway, allowing the AOE to stand in as plaintiffs. While the case is awaiting decision, Yniguez resigns and goes to work elsewhere. 9th Cir. says it's still not moot, because there might still be damages at stake. Remands to the district court, which awards her $1. Appeal, apparently. |
| Issue: | Does Yniguez still have a case to pursue? |
| Holding: | No; when she left government work, the case evaporated. |
| Rule: | You have to have a "vital claim" in order to be a plaintiff. |
| Reasoning: | On appeal, the requirement of standing is the same as it is at the initial level. An association (e.g., AOE) only has standing to sue if its members would have standing in their own right. So probably AOE doesn't have standing. But we don't have to worry about that, because it's moot anyway. And also, when interpreting a state statute, the federal courts just ask if there is a construction possible that contains the state statute within constitutional bounds. If the District Court had just taken the AG's position at its word, we wouldn't have had to do all this appealing. We don't need to worry about that either, though, because this is moot. |
| Dicta: | |