Under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, the "Judicial Power shall extend to all Cases…[and] to Controversies…" (Section 2, Clause 1). This is commonly referred to the "case or controversy" requirement, thus limiting federal courts to hearing cases in which there is an actual dispute between interested parties. Furthermore, in order to bring such an action before a federal court, you must have what is commonly referred to as "standing."
Standing is a legal concept which means that a person has a solid interest in the action that is brought before the Court (i.e. a person needs standing to file a lawsuit which the Court will hear). In other words, if a person does not have standing then the Court will not hear that person’s case.
Next, we’ll break down the concept of standing into its three main components.