of the plaintiffs had always been clear, and standing for the Palila had never been a disputed issue. In Palila I, the district court noted that the action “was filed in the name of the Palila by the Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, Hawaii Audubon Society, and Alan C. Ziegler, suing as next friends and on their own behalf, as plaintiffs.” Palila v. Hawaii Dep’t of Land & Natural Res. (“Palila I”), 471 F.Supp. 985, 987 (D.Haw.1979). On appeal from that decision, we wrote in Palila II, “The Sierra Club and others brought this action in the name of the Palila.” Palila v. Hawaii Dep’t of Land & Natural Res. (“Palila II”), 639 F.2d 495, 496 (9th Cir.1981). On remand, the district court did not repeat its description of the plaintiffs, but the parties were unchanged. Palila v. Hawaii Dep’t of Land & Natural Res. (“Palila III”), 649 F.Supp. 1070 (D.Haw.1986). Finally, in Palila IV, immediately after we stated that the Palila “wings it way into the federal court as a plaintiff in its own right,” we noted that “the Sierra Club and others brought an action under the [ESA] on behalf of the Palila.” Palila IV, 852 F.3d at 1107.
We have jurisdiction if at least one named plaintiff has standing to sue, even if another named plaintiff in the suit does not. See Laub v. U.S. Dep’t. of Interior, 342 F.3d 1080, 1086 (9th Cir.2003). Because the standing of most of the other parties was undisputed in Palila I–IV, no jurisdictional concerns obliged us to consider whether the Palila had standing. Cf. Hawksbill Sea Turtle v. FEMA, 126 F.3d 461, 466 n. 2 (3d Cir.1997) (allowing turtle to remain named in case caption, but not deciding whether it had standing because named human parties did). Moreover, we were never asked to decide whether the Palila had standing.
In context, our statements in Palila IV were little more than rhetorical flourishes. They were certainly not intended to be a statement of law, binding on future panels, that animals have standing to bring suit in their own name under the ESA. Because we did not hold in Palila IV that animals have standing to sue in their own names under the ESA, we address that question as a matter of first impression here.
III. Standing
Standing involves two distinct inquiries. First, an Article III federal court must ask whether a plaintiff has suffered sufficient injury to satisfy the “case or controversy” requirement of Article III. To satisfy Article III, a plaintiff “must show that (1) it has suffered an ‘injury in fact’ that is (a) concrete and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant; and (3) it is likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision.” Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Sys. (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 180–81, 120 S.Ct. 693, 145 L.Ed.2d 610 (2000). If a plaintiff lacks Article III standing, Congress may not confer standing on that plaintiff by statute. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 576–77, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). A suit brought by a plaintiff without Article III standing is not a “case or controversy,” and an Article III federal court therefore lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the suit. Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 523 U.S. 83, 101, 118 S.Ct. 1003, 140 L.Ed.2d 210 (1998). In that event, the suit should be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(1). See Steel Co. at 109–10, 118 S.Ct. 1003; Warren v. Fox Family Worldwide, Inc., 328 F.3d 1136, 1140 (9th Cir.2003); Scott v. Pasadena Unified Sch. Dist., 306 F.3d 646, 664 (9th Cir.2002).
