No group shall be allowed to file suit in federal court on a subject where they have no standing. 

Should any political group act on behalf of a citizen who has standing, their participation shall be allowed but court costs shall not be awarded that group unless the group prevails and negligence is proven. 

Jury awards must be limited to specific amounts as set by state legislatures for non-negligent torts. 

Whenever a political action group is involved in a lawsuit in an attempt to influence or modify government policy they shall pay their own court costs without regard to whether they prevail.

Argument

For far too long the taxpayer has enriched organizations whose sole purpose was to enrich their organization by suing the government.  They typically found an aggrieved individual or group and filed suit on their behalf with the knowledge that win or lose their fees would be covered by the government.  It is insane for the government to pay the attorneys’ fees of other parties in these situations.  It is insane to encourage attorneys to sue the government regardless of the expectation that they could lose the suit by promising to pay their fees. 

There needs to be more discretion in the suits persons are able to file in our court systems.  We have no desire to limit the ability of people to file class action law suits when they have been injured by the negligence of a third party.  However there must be a provision that protects both industry and government against frivolous lawsuits that are brought to create a nuisance and force a manufacturer into a position of either settling for a comparatively small sum or risk a more expensive lawsuit by taking the matter to court.  If the total potential award were known prior to litigation perhaps some of these nuisance suits would not be filed or perhaps manufacturers would be less likely to settle and more willing to take a complaint all the way to trial. 

When a suit is brought by a party intent on changing public policy to coincide with their own beliefs, it should be understood that it if they prevail it is they who have benefitted and thus the plaintiff should bear the entire cost of their own attorney fees and court costs. 

Examples of lawsuits that would under this policy have required the losing party to pay their own litigation costs would include the recent suit brought to eliminate the two words, ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance. 

On matters such as crosses on public property the ACLU should be viewed as not having standing. 

In matters such as suits filed under the Freedom of Information Act where an organization requests information the government is obligated to provide by law, but won’t, the government shall automatically be considered negligent and court costs shall be awarded to the plaintiff unless it can be shown that the information contains privileged details unsuitable for publication.