Thomas, J., dissenting
U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 8) (explaining that judicial remedies “ ‘operate with respect to specific parties,’ ” not “ ‘on legal rules in the abstract’ ”); see also Mellon, 262 U. S., at 488 (explaining that courts “have no power per se to review and annul [statutes] on the ground that they are unconstitutional,” only “the negative power to disregard an unconstitutional enactment” when “declaring the law applicable to [a justiciable] controversy”). Nor can the majority mean that the District Court could change the “status” of the CCA’s judgment. In reality, the only way that the District Court could possibly help Reed obtain DNA testing is by directly controlling the district attorney’s actions. But, again, Reed’s complaint neither requests nor sets forth a basis for any such relief.[1]
- ↑ This case is thus very different from Utah v. Evans, 536 U. S. 452 (2002), on which the majority relies heavily (indeed, exclusively). There, as earlier in Franklin v. Massachusetts, 505 U. S. 788 (1992), we held that a State had standing to sue the Secretary of Commerce for injunctive and declaratory relief against an allegedly improper census report that would have diminished the State’s congressional delegation. See Utah, 536 U. S., at 459–464; Franklin, 505 U. S., at 801–803 (plurality opinion). In both cases, Justice Scalia argued in dissent that redressability was lacking because the causal link between the Secretary’s preparation of a new report and redress of the States’ apportionment injuries depended on the actions of other officials not bound by the court’s judgment. See Utah, 536 U. S., at 511; Franklin, 505 U. S., at 824–825. The Court answered that objection by “assum[ing]”—in large part because “the Solicitor General ha[d] not contended to the contrary”—that it was “substantially likely” that those other officials would cooperate with a judgment in the suing State’s favor. Franklin, 505 U. S., at 803 (plurality opinion); see Utah, 536 U. S., at 460–461, 463–464. Utah and Franklin thus represent nothing more than a context-specific application of the settled rule that “standing is not precluded” (although it is “more difficult to establish”) when the connection between the defendant’s court-ordered remedial conduct and ultimate redress of the plaintiff ’s injury partly depends on the actions of third parties. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U. S. 555, 562 (1992) (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, by contrast, the majority finds redressability in an abstract declaration—in truth, an advisory opinion—that would not require any change in con-
