When laws send a message

From the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, rejecting a challenge by a group of Italian-Americans to Philadelphia changing the city's official holiday from Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day. The court, rightly, the plaintiffs lacked standing based on the city's policy insulting Italian-Americans by declining to celebrate Columbus. I continue to believe what this really means is that the plaintiffs did not suffer a violation of their substantive constitutional rights, but the point is the same.

Reading the arguments, I  was reminded of the travel-ban cases in which plaintiffs argued for standing and a universal injunction based on the message of exclusion sent by the regulation, independent of any enforcement or action under it. I argued at the time that this is not a sufficient injury (substantive violation) and does not create the predicate for beyond-the-plaintiffs relief, because it is the enforcement of law or policy that violates rights, not the law or policy itself. This case presents the same issue. But I wonder how many people who argued for message-of-exclusive standing in 2017 disagree with this decision.