US Claims Alliance Holding Means Advocacy Group Lacks Standing for Forced Labor Case

The U.S. filed its own supplemental brief July 9 in response to a recent Supreme Court decision, FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, arguing that an advocacy group and plaintiff in a forced labor case (see 2402230046) lacks standing to bring its suit to the Court of International Trade (International Rights Advocates v. Alejandro Mayorkas, CIT # 23-00165).

The Supreme Court in Alliance held that an advocacy organization merely spending money to oppose a governmental action isn’t enough of an injury to constitute standing. But this is the same claim that plaintiff International Rights Advocates is making, the U.S. said.

In Alliance, the Court said that injury may not be based on “the intensity of [its interest],” nor on “strong opposition to the government’s conduct; rather, “there must be a showing of ‘far more’ than a setback to the organization’s interests,” it said. Further, an organization’s diversion of resources toward opposing that government action is likewise not an adequate injury, it said.

Alliance was brought by “several doctors and medical associations” who sought to challenge the federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of an abortion drug, the U.S. said. They unsuccessfully argued that they had experienced injury because, among other things, “they had to conduct their own studies of mifepristone to better inform their members and the public of the risks, expend time and resources drafting petitions to the FDA, and engage in public education,” it said.

There is “no appreciable difference” between these claims and International Rights Advocates’, the U.S. said. The organization argues that it incurred costs traveling to western Africa to conduct its own research and communicating with CBP and other organizations, it said.

Alliance, it said, means that organizational standing requires “a more direct impact on an organization’s core activities” that would be “‘unusual’ for an organization to demonstrate.”

“CBP takes seriously allegations of forced labor in Côte d’Ivoire and the agency’s efforts are ongoing in this complex matter,” the government said. “However, IRAdvocates does not have standing to maintain a cause of action to compel the agency to accelerate action on its allegations of forced labor.”

International Rights Advocates submitted its brief on the same topic July 11 (see 2407110021).