Standing
The Article III requirement that a plaintiff have a concrete, personalized stake in the outcome — injury, causation, and redressability.
On the MBE the tell is a plaintiff who is angry but not personally injured — a citizen suing over “illegal” government conduct is a generalized grievance and lacks standing, so the answer dismisses for want of a concrete, particularized stake (post-TransUnion, a bare statutory violation or risk of future harm won’t support damages). Watch redressability: even a real injury fails if the requested relief won’t fix it (suing the wrong defendant, or seeking a remedy the court can’t grant). The exam also tests third-party standing — normally barred, but allowed where the litigant has its own injury plus a close relationship and an obstacle to the right-holder asserting their own rights (doctor–patient, vendor–buyer). Associational standing needs members who would have standing, interests germane to the group’s purpose, and no required individual-member participation.
The classic trap confuses standing with mootness: standing is tested at the start of suit, but a once-live case can go moot later — unless it is capable of repetition yet evading review or the defendant merely voluntarily ceased the conduct. Don’t conflate standing’s injury inquiry with the merits — it is the threshold gate cleared before any federalism or free-speech argument is reached.
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