St. John's Law Review Volume 47 Number 3 Volume 47, March 1973, Number 3 Article 1 Standing to Sue in New York William J. Quirk Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/lawreview This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in St. John's Law Review by an authorized editor of St. John's Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ST. JOHN'S LAW REVIEW VOLUME 47, MARCH 1973 NUMBER 3 STANDING TO SUE IN NEW YORK WILM,,, J. QUm* INTRODUCTION In 1963, the New York Court of Appeals announced: We have always held that the constitutionality of a State statute may be tested only by one personally aggrieved thereby . an unaggrieved citizen-taxpayer, such as appellant, lacks standing to challenge a statute's constitutional validity.' New York, by this stark expression of the "no taxpayer standing" rule, took a position not shared by any of its sister states.2 New York adopted this strict rule while the federal restraints of the Mellon case were being loosened by the Supreme Court.3 Indeed, since 1872, New *Associate Professor of law, University of South Carolina, A.B. 1956 Princeton University; LL.B 1959, University of Virginia. 1 St. Clair v. Yonkers Raceway, Inc. 13 N.Y.2d 72, 73, 192 N.E.2d 15, 15-16, 242 N.Y.S.2d 43, 44 (1963), cert. denied, 375 U.S. 970 (1964).