What are the typical elements a plaintiff must show to have standing in federal court?

• A. Injury in fact, redressability, and standing in a chain of causation
• B. Injury in fact and organizational standing only
• C. Injury in fact, traceability, and redressability
• D. Standing is automatic for all federal cases

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is that federal courts guard access through standing: a plaintiff must show three things to have a justiciable case. First, an injury in fact means there is a real, concrete, and particularized harm—something more than a hypothetical or general grievance. The injury has to affect the plaintiff in a direct way and be capable of being traced to the challenged conduct.

Second, causation (often described as traceability) requires that the harm is fairly attributable to the defendant’s actions, not caused by some unrelated factor. There must be a real link between what the defendant did and the injury the plaintiff suffers.

Third, redressability means that a favorable court decision could actually remedy the injury. If the relief available from the court would not plausibly cure or alleviate the plaintiff’s harm, standing is not satisfied.

These three elements together form the standard for standing. The idea that standing is automatic is incorrect, and simply alleging organizational injury or a notion of chain-of-causation does not alone satisfy the requirements.