In Response to All These Deficiencies, Plaintiffs Argue That S Tanding Can Be Supported

In response to all these deficiencies, Plaintiffs argue that “‘[s]tanding can be supported by a very slender reed of injury.’” Mem. in Opp. to Defs.’ Mot. to Dismiss I, at 4 (citing 13 Charles Allen Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3531.4 (2d ed. 1984)). Plaintiffs are correct that standing can be supported by a very slender reed of injury, as the cases which they cite provide. Yet, this “slender reed” must still have its roots in the soil of an injury personal to the Plaintiffs, not a “derivative harm” uprooted from the soil of another’s injury.

Plaintiffs wish to litigate the issue of slavery without establishing that they have suffered some concrete and particularized injury as a result of the putatively illegal conduct of the

Defendants. See Valley Forge, 454 U.S. at 472; Lujan 504 U.S. at 560. However, “[t]he fundamental aspect of standing is that it focuses on the party seeking to get his complaint before a federal court and not on the issues he wishes to have adjudicated.” “In other words, when standing is placed in issue in a case, the question is whether the person whose standing is challenged is a proper party to request an adjudication of a particular issue and not whether the issue itself is justiciable.” Plaintiffs cannot satisfy the first and most basic requirement of constitutional standing – a concrete and particularized personal injury. See Lujan, 504 U.S. at 560. Plaintiffs cannot establish a personal injury sufficient to confer standing by merely alleging some genealogical relationship to African-Americans held in slavery over one-hundred, two-hundred, or three-hundred years ago. In attempting to litigate the unopposed issue of slavery rather than their personal injuries, Plaintiffs also cannot satisfy the second requirement of constitutional standing – injury that is fairly traceable to the conduct of the defendants. Plaintiffs do not allege that they had any present property interest that was injured as a result of these specific Defendants’ actions, nor that any action of the Defendants wronged them in any way that would be cognizable under tort theory. Plaintiffs fail to allege any conduct by the seventeen specifically named Defendants that individually affected any of the Plaintiffs.

In sum, the allegations of Plaintiffs’ Complaint fail to support their standing to maintain this suit, as required by Article III of the United States Constitution.