I referred to this concept in my rant on Dobbs and it occurred to me that many of you don’t really understand what it means. So I will explain further. To have standing you have to have be demonstrably affected by what you are suing about. You can’t sue because you don’t like the color of someone’s house color in another city. It doesn’t affect you.

The reason I decided to do this rant is because I said I don’t think anyone will have standing to challenge a law allowing contraception or sodomy or gay marriage. Please explain how someone using birth control personally affects you. You might claim that somehow it is contrary to your religion but that would never get you standing.

Now with respect to sodomy — and just remember that it doesn’t just cover gay sex, it also covers oral sex either gay or straight and anal sex either way — please explain how two gay men having sex personally affects you. You can’t because it doesn’t.

And lastly please explain how two men or two women getting married personally affects you. Once again you can’t because it doesn’t. You may find it repulsive but that’s not sufficient to give you standing. There are a lot of things I find ridiculous or offensive to my sensibilities but that doesn’t give me a right to impose my preferences on you.

if these issues get sent back to the states, which I don’t think they will because of a lack of standing, then you can try to get your legislatures to agree with you. I don’t see that happening in almost anywhere.