The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals -- that bastion of liberalism -- has agreed with the district court decision in the Salt Institute case that the Data Quality Act does not create a legally enforceable right. Accordingly, the court held, "[A]ppellants have not alleged an invasion of a legal right and, thus, have failed to establish an injury in fact sufficient to satisfy Article III." Slip op. at 6. The court rejected the appellants' claim that its case should proceed because the Supreme Court accepted "informational injuries" as a category of injury acceptable to show standing in Federal Election Comm'n v. Akins, 524 U.S. 11 (1998). The court did not have to distinguish the cases at all, because Akins was simply inapposite. In Akins, there was no question whether the underlying statutory right existed; instead, the Akins Court started from the alleged violation of a right to information under FECA and explored whether such a violation could be deemed "'sufficiently concrete and specific' to satisfy Article III." In this case, however, the court was addressing "the antecedent question whether Congress has granted a legal right" at all. Unlike FECA, the DQA does not create any individually enforceable rights at all. Download the decision.