Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the Court.
A Jacksonville, Florida, ordinance accords preferential treatment to certain minority-owned businesses in the award of city contracts. In this case we decide whether, in order to have standing to challenge the ordinance, an association of contractors is required to show that one of its members would have received a contract absent the ordinance. We hold that it is not.
I
A
In 1984, respondent Jacksonville enacted an ordinance entitled “Minority Business Enterprise Participation,” which required that 10% of the amount spent on city contracts be set aside each fiscal year for so-called “Minority Business Enterprises” (MBE’s). City of Jacksonville Purchasing Code §§ 126.604(a), 126.605(a) (1988). An MBE was defined as a business whose ownership was at least 51% “minority” or female, § 126.603(a), and a “minority” was in turn defined as a person who is or considers himself to be black, Spanish-speaking, Oriental, Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, or handicapped, § 126.603(b). Once projects were earmarked for MBE bidding by the city’s chief purchasing officer, they were “deemed reserved for minority business enterprises only.” §§ 126.604(c), 126.605(c). Under the ordinance, “[mjathematical certainty [was] not required in determining the amount of the set aside,” but the chief purchasing officer was required to “make every attempt to come as close as possible to
Petitioner, the Northeastern Florida Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), is an association of individuals and firms in the construction industry. Petitioner’s members do business in Jacksonville, and most of them do not qualify as MBE’s under the city’s ordinance. On April 4, 1989, petitioner filed an action, pursuant to 42 U. S. C. §1983, against the city and its mayor (also a respondent here) in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Claiming that Jacksonville’s ordinance violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (both on its face and as applied), petitioner sought declaratory and injunctive relief. In its complaint, petitioner alleged that many of its members “regularly bid on and perform construction work for the City of Jacksonville,” Complaint ¶ 9, and that they “would have . . . bid on . . . designated set aside contracts but for the restrictions imposed” by the ordinance, id., ¶ 46.
On April 6, 1989, the District Court entered a temporary restraining order prohibiting the city from implementing the MBE ordinance, and, on April 20, it issued a preliminary injunction. Respondents appealed. Concluding that petitioner had not demonstrated irreparable injury, the Court of Appeals reversed the issuance of the preliminary injunction, and remanded the case for an expedited disposition on the merits.
Because the Eleventh Circuit’s decision conflicts with decisions of the District of Columbia Circuit and the Ninth Circuit, see O’Donnell Constr. Co. v. District of Columbia, 295 U. S. App. D. C. 317, 320,
B
On October 27, 1992, 22 days after our grant of certiorari, the city repealed its MBE ordinance and replaced it with an ordinance entitled “African-American and Women’s Business Enterprise Participation,” which became effective the next day. This ordinance differs from the repealed ordinance in three principal respects. First, unlike the prior ordinance,
Claiming that there was no longer a live controversy with respect to the constitutionality of the repealed ordinance, respondents filed a motion to dismiss the case as moot on November 18, 1992. We denied that motion on December 14.
II
In their brief on the merits, respondents reassert their claim that the repeal of the challenged ordinance renders the case moot. We decline to disturb our earlier ruling, however; now, as then, the mootness question is controlled by
This is an a fortiori case. There is no mere risk that Jacksonville will repeat its allegedly wrongful conduct; it has already done so. Nor does it matter that the new ordinance differs in certain respects from the old one. City of Mesquite does not stand for the proposition that it is only the possibility that the selfsame statute will be enacted that prevents a case from being moot; if that were the rule, a defendant could moot a case by repealing the challenged statute and replacing it with one that differs only in some insignificant respect. The gravamen of petitioner’s complaint is that its members are disadvantaged in their efforts to obtain city contracts. The new ordinance may disadvantage them to a lesser degree than the old one, but insofar as it accords preferential treatment to black- and female-owned contractors— and, in particular, insofar as its “Sheltered Market Plan” is a “set aside” by another name — it disadvantages them in the same fundamental way.
Ill
The doctrine of standing is “an essential and unchanging part of the case-or-controversy requirement of Article III,” Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife,
The Court of Appeals held that petitioner could not establish standing because it failed to allege that one or more of its members would have been awarded a contract but for the challenged ordinance. Under these circumstances, the Court of Appeals concluded, there is no “injury.”
A
In Turner v. Fouche,
We confronted a similar issue in Clements v. Fashing,
The decision that is most closely analogous to this case, however, is Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke,
B
In urging affirmance, respondents rely primarily upon Warth v. Seldin,
“The complaint refers to no specific project of any of [the association’s] members that is currently precluded either by the ordinance or by respondents’ action in enforcing it. There is no averment that any member has applied to respondents for a building permit or a variance with respect to any current project. Indeed, there is no indication that respondents have delayed or thwarted any project currently proposed by [the association’s] members, or that any of its members has taken advantage of the remedial processes available under the ordinance. In short, insofar as the complaint seeks prospective relief, [the association] has failed to show the existence of any injury to its members of sufficient immediacy and ripeness to warrant judicial intervention.” Id., at 516.
We think Warth is distinguishable. Unlike the other cases that we have discussed, Warth did not involve an allegation that some discriminatory classification prevented the plaintiff from competing on an equal footing in its quest for a benefit. In Turner v. Fouche, Quinn v. Millsap, and Clements v. Fashing, the plaintiffs complained that they could not be considered for public office. And in both Bakke and this case, the allegation was that the plaintiff (or the plaintiff’s membership) was excluded from consideration for a certain portion of benefits — in Bakke, places in a medical school class; here, municipal contracts. In Warth, by contrast, there was no claim that the construction association’s members could not apply for variances and building permits on the same basis as other firms; what the association objected
In any event, the tension is minimal. Even assuming that the alleged injury in Warth was an inability to compete for variances and permits on an equal basis, and that Warth, too, is analogous to this case, it is distinguishable nonetheless. Unlike petitioner, which alleged that its members regularly bid on contracts in Jacksonville and would bid on those that the city’s ordinance makes unavailable to them, the construction association in Warth did not allege that “any member ha[d] applied ... for a building permit or a variance with respect to any current project.” Id., at 516. Thus, unlike the association in Warth, petitioner has alleged an “injury... of sufficient immediacy... to warrant judicial intervention.” Ibid. Furthermore, we did not hold in Warth, as the Court of Appeals — mutatis mutandis — did here, that the association was required to allege that but for a discriminatory policy, variances or permits would have been awarded to its members. An allegation that a “specific project” was “precluded” by the existence or administration of the zoning ordinance, ibid., would certainly have been sufficient to establish standing, but there is no suggestion in Warth that it was necessary.
IV
In its complaint, petitioner alleged that its members regularly bid on construction contracts in Jacksonville, and that they would have bid on contracts set aside pursuant to the city’s ordinance were they so able. Complaint ¶¶ 9, 46. Because those allegations have not been challenged (by way of
So ordered.
Notes
In their motion for summary judgment, respondents claimed only that they were entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the merits; they did not challenge petitioner’s standing. See 2 Record, Exh. 33.
The four other methods are (1) a “Participation Percentage Plan,” under which contractors are required to subcontract with black- or female-owned businesses, §§ 126.605(a), 126.612; (2) a “Direct Negotiation Plan,” pursuant to which the city engages in “direct negotiations” with black- or female-owned businesses, § 126.605(c); (3) a “Bid Preference Plan,” which provides for the award of a contract to the black- or female-owned business whose bid is within a certain percentage or dollar amount of the lowest bid, § 126.605(d); and (4) an “Impact Plan,” under which “point values” are awarded to black- and female-owned businesses and to businesses that use black- or female-owned subcontractors or suppliers or have a specified employment program for black and female employees, § 126.618.
At bottom, the dissent differs with us only over the question whether the new ordinance is sufficiently similar to the repealed ordinance that it is permissible to say that the challenged conduct continues — or, as the dissent puts it, whether the ordinance has been “sufficiently altered so as to present a substantially different controversy from the one the District Court originally decided.” Posi, at 671. We believe that the ordinance has not been “sufficiently altered”; the dissent disagrees. As for the merits of that disagreement, the short answer to the dissent’s argument that this case is controlled by Diffenderfer v. Central Baptist Church of Miami,
Although Bakke came to us from state court, our decision in ASARCO Inc. v. Kadish,
It follows from our definition of “injury in fact” that petitioner has sufficiently alleged both that the city’s ordinance is the “cause” of its injury and that a judicial decree directing the city to discontinue its program would “redress” the injury.
There has been no suggestion that even if petitioner’s members have standing to sue, petitioner itself does not, because one or more of the prerequisites to "associational standing” have not been satisfied. See Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm’n,
Dissenting Opinion
with whom
When a challenged statute expires or is repealed or significantly amended pending review, and the only relief sought is prospective, the Court’s practice has been to dismiss the ease as moot. Today the Court abandons that practice, relying solely on our decision in City of Mesquite v. Aladdin’s Castle, Inc.,
I
A
Earlier this Term, the Court reaffirmed the longstanding rule that a ease must be dismissed as moot “if an event occurs [pending review] that makes it impossible for the court to grant ‘any effectual relief whatever’ to a prevailing party.”
The analysis varies when the challenged statute is amended or is repealed but replaced with new legislation. I agree with -the Court that a defendant cannot moot a case simply by altering the law “in some insignificant respect.” Ante, at 662. We have recognized, however, that material changes may render a case moot. See, e. g., Princeton Univ. v. Schmid,
A more difficult question is presented when, after we have granted review of a case, the challenged statute is replaced with new legislation that, while not obviously or completely remedying the alleged infirmity in the original act, is more narrowly drawn. The new law ultimately may suffer from the same legal defect as the old. But the statute may be sufficiently altered so as to present a substantially different controversy from the one the district court originally decided. In such cases, this Court typically has exercised caution and treated the ease as moot.
In Diffenderfer v. Central Baptist Church of Miami, Inc.,
*672 “The only relief sought in the complaint was a declaratory judgment that the now repealed [statute] is unconstitutional as applied to a church parking lot used for commercial purposes and an injunction against its application to said lot. This relief is, of course, inappropriate now that the statute has been repealed.” Id., at 414-415.
Recognizing that the plaintiffs might wish to challenge the newly enacted legislation, we declined simply to order dismissal, as is our practice when a controversy becomes moot pending a decision by this Court. See United States v. Munsingwear, Inc.,
The Court took a similar approach in Fusari v. Steinberg,
B
Like Diffenderfer, this case concerns a law that was repealed and replaced after this Court granted review. Petitioner’s complaint requests only declaratory and injunctive relief from a set-aside ordinance that no longer exists. The Court acknowledges that Jacksonville’s new ordinance is more narrowly drawn than the last. See ante, at 662 (“The new ordinance may disadvantage [petitioner’s members] to a lesser degree than the old one”). But the majority believes that Diffenderfer and similar cases are inapposite because, in the majority’s view, Jacksonville’s new ordinance does not differ substantially from the one challenged in petitioner’s complaint. See ante, at 662-668, n. 3. I cannot agree.
“The gravamen of petitioner’s complaint,” ante, at 662, as I read it, was that the original set-aside law violated the Equal Protection Clause for two reasons: The law “[lacked] an adequate factual basis,” in that the city had not undertaken studies to determine whether past discrimination or its continuing effects made a preference program necessary, App. 15-17; and the ordinance “[was] not narrowly tailored to remedy any prior racial discrimination,” because the program was not limited in time, the 10% set-aside figure was not rationally related to any relevant statistic, and preferences were awarded to groups against whom no discrimination ever had occurred in the city, id., at 17-18. The District Court invalidated the ordinance on the authority of Rich-
The new ordinance clearly was written to remedy the constitutional defects that petitioner alleged and the District Court found in the original program. The new law was passed after completion of an independent study, which the city commissioned, and after a select committee of the Jacksonville City Council conducted numerous public hearings. The new ordinance expressly adopts the select committee’s findings concerning “the present effects of past discrimination” in city contracting. Jacksonville Purchasing Code §126.601 (1992).
The city’s effort to make the law more narrowly tailored also is evident. By its terms, the new program will expire in 10 years. § 126.604(a). In addition, as the Court explains, all but two of eight previously favored groups have been eliminated from the list of qualified participants; the participation goals vary according to the type of contract and the ownership of the contractor; and there are now five alternative methods for achieving the participation goals. See ante, at 660-661. Only one of the five methods for complying with the participation goals, the “Sheltered Market Plan,” resembles the earlier set-aside law. Ante, at 661. It is unclear how the city will decide when, if ever, to use the Sheltered Market Plan, rather than an alternative method, for a particular project. As in Fusari, “we can only speculate how the new system might operate.”
Whether or not the new ordinance survives scrutiny under the Fourteenth Amendment — a question on which I express no view — I cannot say that these changes are “insignificant,” ante, at 662, to petitioner’s equal protection claim. The ma
That the only issue before us — and the only question decided by the Court of Appeals — concerns petitioner’s standing does not compel a different result. Cf. Burke v. Barnes,
II
I also cannot agree with the majority’s assertion that City of Mesquite “controls]” this case. Ante, at 661. I understand City of Mesquite to have created a narrow exception to
The plaintiff in City of Mesquite challenged a licensing ordinance governing coin-operated amusement establishments. One of the factors considered in determining whether to grant a license under the ordinance was whether the applicant has “connections with criminal elements.”
When the case came before us, we concluded that it need not be dismissed as moot. We relied on the voluntary-cessation doctrine, which provides that “a defendant’s voluntary cessation of a challenged practice does not deprive a federal court of its power to determine the legality of the practice.” Id., at 289. If it did, defendants forever could avoid judicial review simply by ceasing the challenged practice, only to resume it after the case was dismissed. In such cases, we have said that the defendant, to establish mootness, bears a heavy burden of “demonstrat[ing] that there is no reasonable expectation that the wrong will be repeated.” United States v. W. T. Grant Co.,
In City of Mesquite, we decided to reach the merits of the plaintiff’s claim because “the city’s repeal of the objectionable language would not preclude it from reenacting precisely the same provision if the District Court’s judgment were vacated.”
City of Mesquite did not purport to overrule the long line of eases in which we have found repeal of a challenged statute to moot the case. Significantly, we have not referred to the voluntary-cessation doctrine in any other case involving a statute repealed or materially altered pending review. The reason seems to me obvious. Unlike in City of Mesquite, in the ordinary ease it is not at all reasonable to suppose that the legislature has repealed or amended a challenged law simply to avoid litigation and that it will reinstate the original legislation if given the opportunity. This is especially true where, as here, the law has been replaced— no doubt at considerable effort and expense — with a more narrowly drawn version designed to cure alleged legal infirmities. We ordinarily do not presume that legislative bodies act in bad faith. That is why, other than in City of Mesquite, we have not required the government to establish that it cannot be expected to reenact repealed legislation before we will dismiss the case as moot.
At most, I believe City of Mesquite stands for the proposition that the Court has discretion to decide a case in which the statute under review has been repealed or amended. The Court appropriately may render judgment where circumstances demonstrate that the legislature likely will reinstate the old law — which would make a declaratory judgment or an order enjoining the law’s enforcement worthwhile. But such circumstances undoubtedly are rare. And the majority points to nothing in the record of this ease to suggest that we are dealing with the same sort of legislative improprieties that concerned us in City of Mesquite.
The majority is therefore quite unconvincing in its assertion that the mootness question in this case “is controlled by” City of Mesquite. Ante, at 661. By treating that exceptional case as announcing a general rule favoring the exer