Litigant Access Doctrine and the Burger Court

The decisions of potentially most far-reaching significance, however, are the Burger Court's pronouncements concerning the nature and application of the personal injury standard in the field of standing, the status of public action lawsuits, and the propriety of federal district court intervention in state judicial proceedings. This Article critically analyzes the Court's developing position in each of these areas and suggests that in each its doctrinal stance is conceptually weak, rarely serves the functions that it ostensibly was designed to perform, and is extremely vulnerable to capricious application.