October 2024 Animal Law Updates: Can Nonprofits (Still) Sue on Behalf of Animals?

Nonprofits are often plaintiffs in litigation—especially environmental and animal protection litigation. But how does this work? How, in other words, can a nonprofit file a lawsuit? There are two main ways, both of which these organizations regularly employ. In June, however, the Supreme Court made one of these methods a whole lot harder. To put it bluntly, that’s not great for animal and environmental law.

What is Legal Standing?

As a starting point, anyone who wants to bring a lawsuit needs to have “legal standing.” Standing, in turn, boils down to injury. The person bringing the lawsuit (the plaintiff) must be injured, and the court must be able to redress the plaintiff’s injury. In many cases, parties can and do take standing for granted. If you punch me, I am injured. I can sue you, and the court can redress my injury by forcing you to pay me money. But it’s more complicated when the primary injury is not to a human being. Animals, as a general rule, do not have legal personhood, so they cannot go to court to redress their own injuries. Meanwhile, when animals (aside from pets) are harmed, oftentimes, no human being has suffered a legally cognizable injury. You might be upset at the way Tyson treats chickens, but being upset by something without more will not get you into court.

That brings us to nonprofits. As an initial matter, you may be wondering, don’t nonprofits have a personhood problem just like animals? Surprisingly, they don’t. It’s a topic unto itself and one that frankly is twisted and incoherent, but that’s the rule: unlike animals, corporations and nonprofits are legal persons, at least insofar as they can bring a lawsuit. The next issue, then, is how nonprofits can have standing.

Legal Standing for Nonprofits

There are two ways nonprofits can have standing. First, a nonprofit can sue on behalf of a member who has suffered an injury as long as the injury relates to the organization’s mission. For example, if NAACP members are suffering from a racially discriminatory practice, the NAACP can file a lawsuit on behalf of its members. This is called “associational standing.” Associational standing theories can be especially important because organizations are better equipped for litigation than most individuals—and better equipped to handle public pressures. Unfortunately, for the reasons just discussed, this doesn’t always work for animal and environmental organizations: their members don’t have standing in the first place.

Second, a nonprofit can suffer from a direct injury to the organization’s mission, which confers “organizational standing.” Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman is the Supreme Court case most cited for this theory, and it arose because Havens Realty, a company that owned and operated apartment complexes, was engaged in racial steering. As part of its discriminatory conduct, Havens Realty gave false information to HOME, an organization that counseled lower-income families about housing. The Supreme Court allowed HOME to sue, holding that the false information directly impaired HOME’s counseling services, injuring HOME as an organization.

Since Havens Realty, lower courts have identified many ways in which nonprofits suffer injuries—most commonly when adverse government policies or corporate actions cause nonprofits to divert resources. So, if Tyson harmed animals and Animal Outlook found out, Animal Outlook could argue that it diverted resources to counter Tyson’s cruel practices.

Source: Animal Outlook/YouTube

Back in June, however, the Supreme Court walked back organizational standing. In a case called FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the Court clarified that diverting resources is not enough to confer standing. Neither is a setback to a group’s activism. The Court didn’t say exactly what does still count as a direct organizational injury, but it hinted that the injury must look a lot like the injury in Havens.

This is not the first time the Supreme Court has walked back a plaintiff-friendly doctrine. The Bivens doctrine allows individuals to sue for monetary damages when federal officials violate their constitutional rights. Suffice it to say, without disappearing down a rabbit hole, Bivens is almost nonexistent after a 2022 case called Egbert v. Boule all but confined Bivens to its facts. If these other Supreme Court doctrines have prognostic value, there’s a good chance Havens standing goes the way of Egbert in another decade, and no one wants to go the way of Egbert. In practical terms, nonprofits like environmental and animal protection organizations will need to once again adapt to find ways into court.

Academic scholarship available free through SSRN.

Check out previous Animal Law Updates:

• September 2024 Animal Law Updates: Is Tyson Lying About Its Climate-Smart Beef and Net Zero Emissions Goals?
• August 2024 Animal Law Update: A Redistribution of Regulatory Power
• June 2024 Animal Law Updates: Pigs, Ducks, Gas Stations, & Abortion
• May 2024 Animal Law Updates: The Gambit and the Other Shoe
• April 2024 Animal Law Updates: Investigations and the Law
• March 2024 Animal Law Updates: A New Age of Animal Law
• February 2024 Animal Law Updates: Don’t Drain the Swamps
• Animal Law Updates: 2023’s Biggest News and Trends for Animals in Court
• November 2023 Animal Law Updates: Will Animals be Recognized as Family Members in South America?
• October 2023 Animal Law Updates: Big Money
• September 2023 Animal Law Updates: A Small Petition With Big Implications
• August 2023 Animal Law Update: Go Local
• July 2023 Animal Law Update: Someone is Suing the FBI?
• June 2023: Animal Law Updates
• May 2023: Animal Law Updates
• April 2023: Animal Law Updates

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