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Those who challenge a law must have "standing" or personal involvement in the conflict. If a man disputes public school prayers, for example, he has standing only if his own children are affected. If his children are not yet involved in the prayers, or have already left the school, his standing is insufficient to build a case. Further, his case must have "ripeness," meaning that he must be able to show real injury at the time he sues. If the school board is only thinking about starting prayers, the case is not yet ripe.
$1 1 Million Loss. In the first major test of the new Civil Rights Act, the lily-white Heart of Atlanta Motel has just sued the U.S. and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy with a claim that probably has sufficient conflict, standing and ripeness. Along with seeking a declaratory judgment (court opinion on the law's validity), the motel's lawyer-president, Moreton Rolleston Jr., asked for an injunction to prevent Kennedy from enforcing the act on the ground that it violates the Fifth Amendment's guarantees of due process and just compensation for private property taken for public use. Claimed damages: $1,000,000 for deprivation of property rights (lost business if Negroes register) and $10 million for Rolleston's alleged loss of "liberty" to refuse service.
Rolleston's prospects of winning seem slight. For one thing, he is fighting a law that got the most painstaking constitutional examination by a lawyer-dominated Congress sworn to uphold the Constitution just as fervently as the Supreme Court. What is nonetheless admirable is Rolleston's decision to test the law in court rather than to break it simply because he dislikes it. If his action sets a new tone for Southern resistance, it is good news for U.S. law.