decide the merits of the dispute or of particular issues.”15 A
core requirement of standing is that the plaintiff have suffered
an injury in fact. The defendants contend that the plaintiffs
fail to demonstrate injury in fact because they make
insufficient allegations of pecuniary harm.
For purposes of injury in fact, the defendants’
emphasis on economic loss is misplaced. In assessing injury
in fact, we look for an “invasion . . . which is (a) concrete and
particularized; and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or
hypothetical.”16 Though the “injury must affect the plaintiff in
a personal and individual way,”17 this standard does not
demand that a plaintiff suffer any particular type of harm to
have standing. Consequently, and contrary to the contentions
of the defendants, a plaintiff need not show actual monetary
loss for purposes of injury in fact. Rather, “the actual or
threatened injury required by Art. III may exist solely by
virtue of statutes creating legal rights, the invasion of which
creates standing.”18 Sure enough, the Supreme Court itself
15
Storino v. Borough of Point Pleasant Beach, 322 F.3d 293,
296 (3d Cir. 2003) (internal quotation marks omitted). “If
[the] plaintiffs do not possess Article III standing, both the
District Court and this Court lack subject matter jurisdiction
to address the merits of [the] plaintiffs’ case.” Id. (internal
quotation marks omitted).
16
Pichler v. UNITE, 542 F.3d 380, 390 (3d Cir. 2008)
(quoting Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61
(1992)).
17
Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560 n.1.
14