Article III of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal courts jurisdiction over “cases or controversies.” In plain English, courts are only supposed to decide real fights between adverse interests—if they don’t, they are setting policy (which is the legislative branch’s job).  The presence of such a genuine dispute is called “standing,” and it has three parts.  The plaintiff has to (1) have suffered an injury-in-fact; (2) that is fairly traceable to the defendant; and (3) that is likely to be redressed by a court decision in the plaintiff’s favor. 

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At today’s conference on Privacy Principles in the Era of Massive Data, co-sponsored by the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy and the Georgetown Law Center, Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, delivered a thoughtful keynote address on The Power of Data.