Laufer v. Acheson Hotels, LLC ( 2022 )


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  •           United States Court of Appeals
    For the First Circuit
    No. 21-1410
    DEBORAH LAUFER,
    Plaintiff, Appellant,
    v.
    ACHESON HOTELS, LLC,
    Defendant, Appellee.
    APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
    FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE
    [Hon. George Z. Singal, U.S. District Judge]
    Before
    Kayatta, Howard, and Thompson,
    Circuit Judges.
    Thomas B. Bacon, with whom Thomas B. Bacon, P.A. was on brief,
    for appellant.
    Sally A. Morris, with whom Jennifer H. Rohde and Sally A.
    Morris, Attorney at Law, LLC, were on brief, for appellee.
    October 5, 2022
    THOMPSON, Circuit Judge.          We're asked today to weigh in
    for the first time on an Article III standing question that has
    divided   the    circuit   courts.      Certain      regulations   under   the
    Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") require places of public
    lodging   to    make   information    about    the   hotel's   accessibility
    available on any reservation portal to those with disabilities.
    In the age of websites, that means a disabled person can comb the
    web looking for non-compliant websites, even if she has no plans
    whatsoever to actually book a room at the hotel.                   Thus, the
    information could be viewed as irrelevant to her -- except to
    whether the website is complying with the law.             Has she suffered
    a concrete and particularized injury in fact to have standing to
    sue in federal court?      Contrary to the district court's thinking,
    we think the answer is yes.1         We further conclude that Laufer has
    standing to pursue injunctive relief and that the case is not moot.
    So we reverse.
    1 By our count of the precedential opinions, three of our
    sibling circuit courts have said no, and one has said yes. See
    Laufer v. Arpan LLC, 
    29 F.4th 1268
    , 1273-74 (11th Cir. 2022)
    (standing); Harty v. W. Point Realty, Inc., 
    28 F.4th 435
    , 444 (2d
    Cir. 2022) (no standing); Laufer v. Looper, 
    22 F.4th 871
    , 879–81,
    883 (10th Cir. 2022) (same); Laufer v. Mann Hosp. L.L.C., 
    996 F.3d 269
    , 273 (5th Cir. 2021) (same). One other has said no in a non-
    precedential judgment without analysis. See Laufer v. Alamac Inc.,
    No. 21-7056, 
    2021 WL 4765435
    , at *1 (D.C. Cir. Sept. 10, 2021).
    - 2 -
    I.
    A.
    Deborah Laufer is disabled.       She can't walk more than a
    few steps without assistance and instead uses a wheelchair or a
    cane to move around.    She also has limited use of her hands and is
    vision impaired.      Among other requirements to accommodate her
    disabilities, she needs special accessible parking and has to use
    passageways wide enough and properly graded for her wheelchair.
    Certain surfaces also need to be lowered so she can reach them,
    pipes under a sink need to be wrapped so she doesn't scrape her
    legs on them, and bathrooms need grab bars so she can transfer
    from her wheelchair.
    Defendant    Acheson   Hotels,    LLC,   operates   The   Coast
    Village Inn and Cottages in a small town on Maine's southern coast.
    It accepts reservations for the Inn on its own and other travel-
    related websites.     When Laufer first visited Acheson's website,
    she found that it didn't identify accessible rooms, didn't provide
    an option for booking an accessible room, and didn't give her
    sufficient information to determine whether the rooms and features
    of the Inn were accessible to her.         She also says she faced the
    same dearth of information when she visited the Inn's reservation
    service through thirteen other third-party websites, including
    Expedia.com, Hotels.com, and Booking.com.          And she alleges that
    - 3 -
    she plans to revisit these websites "[i]n the near future" to see
    if they still lack this information she needs.
    B.
    That brings us to the next piece of the story:                    the
    statutory background that brings color to Laufer's claim. Congress
    enacted the ADA recognizing that "many people with physical or
    mental disabilities have been precluded from [participating in all
    aspects   of   society]    because    of     discrimination,"       
    42 U.S.C. § 12101
    (a)(1), and that those with disabilities, "as a group,
    occupy an inferior status in our society," 
    id.
     § 12101(a)(6).
    Congress found that "individuals with disabilities continually
    encounter various forms of discrimination, including . . . failure
    to make modifications to existing facilities and practices, . . .
    segregation,    and   relegation      to     lesser     services,     programs,
    activities,    benefits,   jobs,     or     other     opportunities."       Id.
    § 12101(a)(5); see also Tennessee v. Lane, 
    541 U.S. 509
    , 536–37
    (2004) (Ginsburg, J., concurring) (describing the congressional
    impetus of the ADA); Cushing v. Packard, 
    30 F.4th 27
    , 59 (1st Cir.
    2022) (Thompson, J., dissenting) (same).
    Title III of the ADA provides that "[n]o individual shall
    be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full
    and   equal    enjoyment   of   the        goods,     services,     facilities,
    privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public
    accommodation by any person who owns . . . or operates a place of
    - 4 -
    public accommodation."         
    42 U.S.C. § 12182
    (a).           Specifically, the
    ADA makes it discriminatory to provide disabled individuals with
    an "opportunity to participate in or benefit from a good, service,
    facility, privilege, advantage, or accommodation" unequal to those
    without disabilities.         
    Id.
     § 12182(b)(1)(A)(ii).          And it defines
    discrimination     to   include     the     "failure      to   make     reasonable
    modifications in policies, practices, or procedures, when such
    modifications     are   necessary      to   afford   such      goods,    services,
    facilities,      privileges,      advantages,        or    accommodations         to
    individuals with disabilities."           Id. § 12182(b)(2)(A)(ii).           Laufer
    qualifies as disabled within the meaning of the ADA.
    The ADA also delegates to the Attorney General the
    authority to promulgate regulations to carry out § 12182.                        Id.
    § 12186(b).       One    of    those     regulations      pertains       to   hotel
    reservations.2     
    28 C.F.R. § 36.302
    (e).            The regulation provides
    that a "public accommodation" operating a "place of lodging" must
    "with respect to reservations made by any means . . . [i]dentify
    and describe accessible features in the hotels and guest rooms
    offered through its reservations service in enough detail to
    reasonably    permit    individuals         with   disabilities         to    assess
    independently whether a given hotel or guest room meets his or her
    accessibility needs."         
    Id.
     § 36.302(e)(1)(ii).
    2 Acheson does not argue that this regulation exceeds the
    authority granted to the Attorney General under § 12186(b).
    - 5 -
    The     Department         of     Justice's           guidance          on     these
    regulations says that "basic nondiscrimination principles mandate
    that individuals with disabilities should be able to reserve hotel
    rooms with the same efficiency, immediacy, and convenience as those
    who do not need accessible guest rooms."                       28 C.F.R. pt. 36, app.
    A   (2010),     Guidance       on     Revisions           to     ADA    Regulation         on
    Nondiscrimination       on     the     Basis         of    Disability         by       Public
    Accommodations and Commercial Facilities ("DOJ Guidance").                                 The
    Reservation     Rule,    DOJ       says,   "is       essential         to    ensure      that
    individuals with disabilities receive the information they need to
    benefit from the services offered by the place of lodging."                                Id.
    And although "a reservations system is not intended to be an
    accessibility survey," public accommodations still must provide
    some detail     -- "enough detail"              --   to allow individuals with
    disabilities to know what services they can enjoy.                          Id.
    When    a     public      accommodation          violates         the    ADA     and
    discriminates    against       a     disabled        person,      the       ADA    and    the
    regulations promulgated under it permit private individuals to
    bring enforcement actions in federal court.                     
    42 U.S.C. § 12188
    (a);
    
    28 C.F.R. § 36.501
    .
    C.
    And that's what Laufer did.                     Availing herself of that
    procedure, Laufer sued Acheson in the District of Maine.                                 Which
    she's familiar doing:          Laufer is a self-proclaimed ADA "tester"
    - 6 -
    and advocate for disabled persons and has filed hundreds of other
    ADA-related suits in federal courts from coast to coast.              Against
    Acheson, she brought a single claim for violation of 
    42 U.S.C. § 12181
     and 
    28 C.F.R. § 36.302
    (e) (the Reservation Rule) and sought
    declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as attorney's fees and
    costs.
    Responding,     Acheson    moved   to   dismiss.     Pointing   to
    Laufer's hundreds of other ADA suits around the country, Acheson
    said that Laufer had no real intention of booking a room at its
    Inn.   So, Acheson said, Laufer lacks Article III standing to bring
    her    suit,    and   the    court    accordingly    lacks     subject-matter
    jurisdiction over the case.          Laufer opposed the motion and amended
    her complaint to detail her plans to visit Maine.               The district
    court took Acheson's side and dismissed the case for lack of
    standing.      Laufer timely appealed.
    II.
    Acheson moved under Rule 12(b)(1).          See Fed. R. Civ. P.
    12(b)(1).      There are two species of 12(b)(1) attacks on subject-
    matter jurisdiction:        facial and factual challenges.        See Torres-
    Negrón v. J & N Recs., LLC, 
    504 F.3d 151
    , 162 (1st Cir. 2007).
    When the attack is facial, the relevant facts are the well-pleaded
    allegations in the complaint, which the court must take as true.
    Toddle Inn Franchising, LLC v. KPJ Assocs., LLC, 
    8 F.4th 56
    , 61
    n.5 (1st Cir. 2021).         If the attack is factual, then the court
    - 7 -
    "need not accept the plaintiff's allegations as true but can 'weigh
    the evidence and satisfy itself as to the existence of its power
    to hear the case.'"    
    Id.
     (quoting Torres-Negrón, 
    504 F.3d at 163
    ).
    The challenge here was only facial, so we, too, take the
    complaint's well-pleaded allegations as true when analyzing our
    jurisdiction.    See 
    id.
       Our review of the allegations mirrors the
    plausibility standard for Rule 12(b)(6) motions.     Hochendoner v.
    Genzyme Corp., 
    823 F.3d 724
    , 730 (1st Cir. 2016).     At the end of
    the day, then, our question is whether the plaintiff's complaint
    -- taking as true all of Laufer's factual allegations, drawing all
    inferences in her favor, but discarding legal conclusions and
    threadbare recitations of the elements, see Zell v. Ricci, 
    957 F.3d 1
    , 7 (1st Cir. 2020) -- contains enough factual heft to
    demonstrate that the court has subject-matter jurisdiction, see
    Katz v. Pershing, LLC, 
    672 F.3d 64
    , 70 (1st Cir. 2012).    We review
    the district court's decision de novo, meaning we look at things
    with fresh eyes and without any deference to the able district
    judge's analysis.     Amrhein v. eClinical Works, LLC, 
    954 F.3d 328
    ,
    330 (1st Cir. 2020).
    III.
    A.
    Article III of the Constitution gives the federal courts
    the power to hear only "Cases" and "Controversies."     U.S. Const.
    art. III, § 2.    That constitutional limitation means courts can
    - 8 -
    resolve only "genuine, live dispute[s] between adverse parties."
    Carney v. Adams, 
    141 S. Ct. 493
    , 498 (2020).           Out of that general
    rule has emerged the multi-faceted doctrine of standing, see 
    id.,
    a doctrine simple to describe but often tricky to apply.
    To have standing, a plaintiff has to show three things:
    that she "(1) suffered an injury in fact, (2) that is fairly
    traceable to the challenged conduct of the defendant, and (3) that
    is likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision."
    Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 
    578 U.S. 330
    , 338 (2016).                 We're focused
    on the first part here -- injury in fact.            An injury in fact, as
    we use that term of art, means "the invasion of a legally protected
    interest       that   is   concrete   and   particularized   and       actual   or
    imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical."           Amrhein, 954 F.3d at
    330 (cleaned up) (quoting Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 339).                    (What that
    all means we'll get into more detail on later.)
    Standing doctrine serves many purposes.            "It tends to
    assure that the legal questions presented to the court will be
    resolved, not in the rarified atmosphere of a debating society,
    but   in   a    concrete    factual   context   conducive    to    a    realistic
    appreciation of the consequences of judicial action." Valley Forge
    Christian Coll. v. Ams. United for Separation of Church & State,
    Inc., 
    454 U.S. 464
    , 472 (1982).         It also ensures the federal courts
    aren't morphed into "no more than a vehicle for the vindication of
    the value interests of concerned bystanders."          
    Id.
     (quoting United
    - 9 -
    States v. SCRAP, 
    412 U.S. 669
    , 687 (1973)).          And it reflects
    separation-of-powers principles that the courts shouldn't be used
    to "usurp the powers of the political branches."          Clapper v.
    Amnesty Int'l USA, 
    568 U.S. 398
    , 408 (2013).
    Article III standing operates as a limit on federal
    courts' jurisdiction.     
    Id.
       And because it is jurisdictional, it
    cannot be waived or forfeited and can be raised at any time, by
    anyone.   See Va. House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill, 
    139 S. Ct. 1945
    , 1951 (2019).      When it is raised, the burden of showing
    standing rests on the party invoking the court's jurisdiction.
    
    Id.
       Meeting that burden is mission critical for their case -- no
    standing, no jurisdiction, and the case must be dismissed.
    B.
    Acheson first asserts that the Reservation Rule did not
    require it to reveal all the information Laufer wants, and so she
    suffered no injury via a violation of the rule.     But we don't have
    to untangle Acheson's argument on the merits of Laufer's claim to
    determine her standing.
    Standing is, "[i]n essence," a question of "whether the
    litigant is entitled to have the court decide the merits of the
    dispute or of particular issues."      Allen v. Wright, 
    468 U.S. 737
    ,
    750-51 (1984) (quoting Warth v. Seldin, 
    422 U.S. 490
    , 498 (1975)),
    abrogated on other grounds by Lexmark Int'l, Inc. v. Static Control
    Components, Inc., 
    572 U.S. 118
     (2014).        "[S]tanding in no way
    - 10 -
    depends on the merits of the plaintiff's contention that particular
    conduct is illegal."    Hochendoner, 823 F.3d at 734 (quoting Warth,
    
    422 U.S. at 500
    ); see Fed. Election Comm'n v. Cruz, 
    142 S. Ct. 1638
    , 1647 (2022).     In other words, that a plaintiff's ultimate
    recovery "may be uncertain or even unlikely . . . is of no moment"
    to us now.   See Mission Prod. Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC,
    
    139 S. Ct. 1652
    , 1660 (2019); see also Ariz. State Legislature v.
    Ariz. Indep. Redistricting Comm'n, 
    576 U.S. 787
    , 800 (2015) ("one
    must not confuse weakness on the merits with absence of Article
    III standing" (cleaned up)).    At this point, our only question is,
    putting the merits aside, whether Laufer plausibly alleges she was
    injured under her theory of the underlying legal claim.                  See
    Hochendoner, 823 F.3d at 734; see also Cruz, 142 S. Ct. at 1647–
    48 ("For standing purposes, we accept as valid the merits of
    appellees' legal claims.").
    Nor   is   Laufer's   claim   "so    implausible   that   it   is
    insufficient to preserve jurisdiction."        See Chafin v. Chafin, 
    568 U.S. 165
    , 174 (2013).    Though Acheson thinks Laufer could've just
    picked up the phone to ask for the information and that this was
    supposed to be an interactive process, the regulations clearly
    provide that hotels' reservation portals still must provide some
    detail -- "enough detail" -- to allow individuals with disabilities
    to know what services they can enjoy.         
    28 C.F.R. § 36.302
    (e); DOJ
    - 11 -
    Guidance, 28 C.F.R. pt. 36, app. A (2010).      Which Laufer alleges
    Acheson's portals didn't do.
    So for our standing analysis, we assume, in line with
    Laufer's theory, that the Reservation Rule requires Acheson to
    give her certain information.      And we further assume, as she
    alleges in her complaint, that Acheson's website and other third-
    party reservation services didn't provide that information.
    C.
    That brings us to our next question:         Is Acheson's
    failure to provide that information a sufficiently concrete injury
    to Laufer to give her standing?
    Acheson thinks not.          It says Laufer never had any
    intention of traveling to Maine or booking a room at its Inn.3
    Instead, Laufer was just sitting on her computer hunting websites
    for ADA non-compliance from over a thousand miles away in her
    Florida home. Whatever information she was denied, then, she never
    needed.   And, its argument goes, that destroys her standing -- it
    makes her risk of harm counterfactual since "there was no prospect
    that she would have tried to exercise" her statutory rights to
    information about accommodations at the Inn she never wanted to go
    to.   So, Acheson says, her injury is not concrete enough -- to be
    Side note: We mentioned a few pages back that Laufer amended
    3
    her complaint to allege her intent to travel to Maine. But she
    now on appeal disclaims any such intent.
    - 12 -
    concrete enough, Laufer would need to allege that her informational
    drought harmed her in some way.
    1.
    First we zoom out to take a broader look at what makes
    an injury concrete.
    Concrete injuries must be "'de facto'; that is, [they]
    must actually exist."      Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 340.       Although easier
    to recognize, the injury doesn't have to be "tangible," id., "like
    a picked pocket or a broken leg," to be concrete, Amrhein, 954
    F.3d at 330.   Intangible injuries -- like "the suppression of free
    speech or religious exercise" or the invasion of common-law rights
    "actionable without wallet injury" -- can also be concrete.             Id.
    at 331; see Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 340; Valley Forge Christian Coll.,
    
    454 U.S. at 486
     (noneconomic injuries can count just as much as
    economic ones, and collecting cases).
    Because they're less obvious, intangible injuries can
    raise more of a question on whether there's an Article III case or
    controversy. See Amrhein, 954 F.3d at 331. In determining whether
    an intangible harm rises to the level of a concrete injury, the
    Supreme   Court   has   told   us   that   "both   history"   (particularly
    "whether an alleged intangible harm has a close relationship to a
    harm that has traditionally been regarded as providing a basis for
    a lawsuit in English or American courts") and "the judgment of
    Congress play important roles."              Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 340-41.
    - 13 -
    "Congress," the Court has said, "is well positioned to identify
    intangible harms that meet minimum Article III requirements," id.
    at 341, and "may 'elevate to the status of legally cognizable
    injuries    concrete,   de   facto    injuries   that   were   previously
    inadequate in law,'" TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 
    141 S. Ct. 2190
    ,
    2205 (2021) (quoting Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 341).           Yet still, not
    even Congress can "spin a 'bare procedural violation, divorced
    from any concrete harm' into an 'injury-in-fact,'" Amrhein, 954
    F.3d at 331 (quoting Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 341) -- though the
    violation of some procedural rights Congress grants can, without
    any additional harm, be concrete enough, Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 342.
    In all, this just means that we judges must still "independently
    decide whether a plaintiff has suffered a concrete harm under
    Article III," even if Congress adamantly says they do. TransUnion,
    141 S. Ct. at 2205.
    2.
    Our bearings set, back to Laufer's case.       Does Laufer's
    self-admitted status as a tester -- that she had no intent to do
    anything but test the website's ADA compliance -- mean she hasn't
    suffered an injury?
    Acheson seems to accept that tester status alone doesn't
    defeat standing -- a party can set out to determine whether public
    accommodations are complying with a statute. That concession makes
    sense.     We said just a year ago that a plaintiff's status as a
    - 14 -
    tester does not destroy        her standing.        See Suárez-Torres v.
    Panaderia Y Reposteria España, Inc., 
    988 F.3d 542
    , 550–51 (1st
    Cir. 2021).    That is, a plaintiff's deliberate choice to see if
    accommodations are obeying a statute doesn't mean that her injury
    in fact is any less real or concrete.         
    Id.
        And Suárez broke no
    new ground -- the Supreme Court reached the same result forty years
    ago.     See Havens Realty Corp. v. Coleman, 
    455 U.S. 363
    , 373–74
    (1982).
    But in somewhat of a twist on that proposition, Acheson
    further posits that a lack of intent to do anything with the
    information -- like a tester does -- makes the information not
    relevant, and the injury accordingly not concrete for standing.
    To solve that puzzle, we start by turning back to one of the
    Supreme Court's earlier tester cases, Havens Realty.
    a.
    Havens   Realty   involved   racial   steering.   One     Black
    plaintiff asked Havens Realty on multiple occasions whether it had
    any units open to rent in its two apartment complexes.              
    Id. at 368
    .   She was told no, but a white plaintiff who went to test that
    out was given the opposite answer -- there were vacancies.              
    Id.
    So they sued under section 804 of Fair Housing Act of 1968, 
    42 U.S.C. § 3604
    ,    which    prohibited   falsely     representing    the
    unavailability of a dwelling "because of race, color, religion,
    sex, or national origin."      Havens Realty, 
    455 U.S. at 373
    .
    - 15 -
    Importantly, this Black plaintiff was a tester, too --
    she had no intent of ever renting an apartment from the defendant
    and went posing as a renter only to figure out if the defendant
    was violating the law.      
    Id.
        Yet the Supreme Court said that she
    still had standing.      
    Id. at 374
    .     Because she was the object of
    the misrepresentation and "suffered injury in precisely the form
    the statute was intended to guard against," the Black tester
    plaintiff had standing.     
    Id.
     at 373–74.    "That the tester may have
    approached the real estate agent fully expecting that [s]he would
    receive false information, and without any intention of buying or
    renting a home" was neither here nor there, our judicial superiors
    said -- it "does not negate the simple fact of injury within the
    meaning of [the statute]."        
    Id. at 374
    ; see also Cruz, 142 S. Ct.
    at 1647 (noting that the Court has long held that an injury is an
    injury "even if [it] could be described in some sense as willingly
    incurred," citing Havens Realty); Evers v. Dwyer, 
    358 U.S. 202
    ,
    204 (1958) (a Black plaintiff's choice to board a segregated "bus
    for the purpose of instituting this litigation is not significant"
    to the standing inquiry).
    Havens Realty appears right on the nose for Laufer's
    case -- both to her status as a tester and the injury she suffered.
    The Reservation Rule requires that places of lodging make available
    --   in   their   accommodation   descriptions   on   their   reservations
    services -- information about the accessible features in their
    - 16 -
    hotels and guest rooms. 
    28 C.F.R. § 36.302
    (e)(1)(ii). The purpose
    of this requirement is "to reasonably permit [Laufer] to assess
    independently whether a given hotel . . . meets . . . her
    accessibility needs."   See 
    id.
       And that is precisely what Laufer
    was doing.   Just as in Havens Realty, there is no carveout that
    the information need only be turned over if the person trying to
    make a reservation actually wants to make a reservation.     Compare
    
    id.
     § 36.302(e), with Havens Realty, 
    455 U.S. at
    373–74 (noting
    that § 804(d) gave "all     'persons'    a legal right to truthful
    information about available housing" and did not impose any "bona
    fide offer" requirement).    So if the Black tester plaintiff had
    standing in Havens Realty where the statute gave her a right to
    truthful information, which she was denied, then Havens Realty
    would mean that Laufer, too, has standing because she was denied
    information to which she has a legal entitlement.       Just as the
    Black tester plaintiff's lack of intent to rent an apartment in
    Havens Realty "d[id] not negate the simple fact of injury," neither
    does Laufer's lack of intent to book a room at Acheson's Inn negate
    her standing.   See 
    455 U.S. at
    373–74.
    Adding on, the Supreme Court has repeatedly said that
    denial of information to which plaintiffs have a legal right can
    be a concrete injury in fact.     See Fed. Election Comm'n v. Akins,
    
    524 U.S. 11
    , 20–21 (1998); Pub. Citizen v. U.S. Dep't of Just.,
    
    491 U.S. 440
    , 449–50 (1989); see also Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 342
    - 17 -
    (noting that "the violation of a procedural right granted by
    statute can be sufficient in some circumstances to constitute
    injury in fact," citing Akins and Public Citizen).                 Akins was a
    suit   where   a   group   of    voters      sought    (among   other   things)
    information about a list of donors to a political organization
    they said was subject to public-disclosure requirements under
    elections laws.     
    524 U.S. at 15, 21
    .          Noting that "[t]here [wa]s
    no reason to doubt [the voters'] claim that the information would
    help them . . . evaluate candidates for public office," the Court
    said that they suffered an injury in fact because they "fail[ed]
    to obtain information which," at least under their view of the
    law, "must be publicly disclosed pursuant to a statute."                  
    Id. at 21
    .    Similarly, Public Citizen was a suit by advocacy groups to
    obtain information they asserted was subject to public disclosure
    under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.                
    491 U.S. at
    447–48.
    The Court said that the groups suffered an injury in fact because
    they were denied information the statute gave them the right to.
    
    Id. at 449
    .    As the Court put it:       "Our decisions interpreting the
    Freedom   of   Information      Act   have     never   suggested   that    those
    requesting information under it need show more than that they
    sought and were denied specific agency records."                   Id.; accord
    Maloney v. Murphy, 
    984 F.3d 50
    , 60 (D.C. Cir. 2020) (holding that
    a FOIA "requester's circumstances -- why he wants the information,
    what he plans to do with it, what harm he suffered from the failure
    - 18 -
    to disclose -- are irrelevant to his standing" (quoting Zivotofsky
    v. Sec'y of State, 
    444 F.3d 614
    , 617 (D.C. Cir. 2006))).
    So to sum it up so far:         Havens Realty, Akins, and Public
    Citizen make clear that a denial of information that a plaintiff
    is statutorily entitled to have can make for a concrete injury in
    fact.   And Havens Realty and Public Citizen tell us that the denial
    of information to a member of a protected class alone can suffice
    to make an injury in fact -- that person's intended use of the
    information is not relevant.
    b.
    Were that the whole landscape, this case would prove
    quite simple.     But there's a wrinkle.        Acheson jumps all over three
    lines in a Supreme Court decision from last year, TransUnion, which
    Acheson says marked a sea change in the law of informational
    standing that casts doubt on Havens Realty's application to this
    case.
    TransUnion involved a class action brought by consumers
    against a credit-reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting
    Act.    141 S. Ct. at 2200.        Part of the claim was that the credit-
    reporting agency didn't provide information in the format required
    by the FCRA.     See id. at 2214.     The Court addressed the plaintiffs'
    standing,    drawing   on    the    Court's     explanation   of   intangible
    injuries in Spokeo.      (Recall that Spokeo teaches that Congress's
    judgment    is   important    to    finding     intangible-but-nonetheless-
    - 19 -
    concrete harms, but its judgment is not the end all be all since
    there    must    still     be    a    concrete      injury    accompanying     a   bare
    procedural violation -- though the Court did caveat that the
    violation of some statutory procedural rights could pose a concrete
    injury even without additional harm.                 See 578 U.S. at 340–42.)        An
    amicus threw in the argument that the plaintiffs had standing for
    an informational injury, citing to Akins and Public Citizen.                         141
    S. Ct. at 2214.         Which the Court rejected, saying Akins and Public
    Citizen didn't "control" because the plaintiffs weren't denied any
    information; rather, they received it in the wrong format.                           Id.
    But -- and here's where it gets important for us -- the Court added
    a "[m]oreover":         It said the plaintiffs "identified no 'downstream
    consequences' from failing to receive the required information"
    and that "'[a]n asserted informational injury that causes no
    adverse    effects      cannot       satisfy    Article      III.'"     Id.   (quoting
    Trichell v. Midland Credit Mgmt., Inc., 
    964 F.3d 990
    , 1004 (11th
    Cir. 2020)).
    With that "moreover" morsel in mind, Acheson presses
    that Havens Realty and Public Citizen don't survive Spokeo and
    TransUnion.       And to be sure, it has some support behind it from
    our sibling circuits who have addressed suits like this one since
    TransUnion.      See Harty v. W. Point Realty, Inc., 
    28 F.4th 435
    , 444
    (2d     Cir.    2022)     (concluding          an   ADA-Reservation-Rule       tester
    plaintiff       can't    show    a    concrete      injury    from    the   denial   of
    - 20 -
    information without also showing downstream consequences post-
    TransUnion); Laufer v. Looper, 
    22 F.4th 871
    , 879–81, 883 (10th
    Cir. 2022) (same); see also Laufer v. Mann Hosp. L.L.C., 
    996 F.3d 269
    , 273 (5th Cir. 2021) (concluding Laufer had no standing because
    she   couldn't   show   the   information   she   was    denied   had   "some
    relevance" to her).
    Here's the issue:     We can't overrule prior Supreme Court
    cases -- that much the Court has made clear.                 "And because
    overruling Supreme Court precedent is the Court's job, not ours,
    we must follow [precedent] until the Court specifically tells us
    not to" -- even if we think those older decisions are in tension
    with newer ones.    See United States v. Morosco, 
    822 F.3d 1
    , 7 (1st
    Cir. 2016); see also Scheiber v. Dolby Lab'ys, Inc., 
    293 F.3d 1014
    ,
    1018 (7th Cir. 2002) (Posner, J.) ("[W]e have no authority to
    overrule a Supreme Court decision no matter how dubious its
    reasoning strikes us, or even how out of touch with the Supreme
    Court's current thinking the decision seems.").
    As we said before, we think Havens Realty shows the clear
    path here -- it is so similar to Laufer's case as to render any
    distinction insufficiently material.         We're thus bound by that
    decision   unless   the   Supreme   Court   tells   us    that    TransUnion
    overruled it.4      Under Laufer's theory, she had a right to the
    4True, we're "bound by the Supreme Court's considered dicta
    almost as firmly as by the Court's outright holdings, particularly
    - 21 -
    information that she alleges Acheson didn't give her.     And the
    statute makes that denial of information discrimination against
    disabled persons and gives Laufer the right to sue in response.
    That Laufer had no intent to use the information for anything but
    a lawsuit doesn't change things -- she was still injured in
    precisely the way the statute was designed to protect.
    c.
    i.
    Acheson's various attempts to distinguish Havens Realty
    don't change our view that it governs here.
    Acheson says that the denial of information here wasn't
    in itself discriminatory, but the lies to the plaintiff in Havens
    Realty were.   Yes, the misinformation in Havens Realty certainly
    when . . . a dictum is of recent vintage and not enfeebled by any
    subsequent statement." McCoy v. Mass. Inst. of Tech., 
    950 F.2d 13
    , 19 (1st Cir. 1991); see United States v. Báez-Martínez, 
    950 F.3d 119
    , 132 (1st Cir. 2020). But when later dictum might call
    into question a prior holding, we're still bound by the Court's
    earlier holding, not its dictum. See Bais Yaakov of Spring Valley
    v. ACT, Inc., 
    798 F.3d 46
    , 50 & n.5 (1st Cir. 2015).           And
    TransUnion's    downstream-consequences-needed-for-informational-
    injury proviso certainly looks like dictum given that the Court
    concluded the plaintiffs didn't allege they hadn't received any
    required information. See 141 S. Ct. at 2214. Moreover, we've
    called "suspect" arguments that the Supreme Court implicitly
    overruled one of its prior decisions.       See United States v.
    Symonevich, 
    688 F.3d 12
    , 19 n.4 (1st Cir. 2012). And we think it
    suspect, too, that the Court would overrule Havens Realty
    implicitly, in dictum, and with only three sentences of
    explanation.   Cf. In re Sealed Case, 
    151 F.3d 1059
    , 1064 (D.C.
    Cir. 1998) ("[I]t is rather implausible that the Supreme Court, in
    dicta -- not to mention in a footnote -- meant to overrule sub
    silentio the holdings in" prior cases.).
    - 22 -
    looks like it was borne out of racial animus.                Yet still, Acheson's
    distinction    is   hard   to       square     up.       The    regulations   here
    specifically    make   the      denial       of      accessibility    information
    actionable discrimination against disabled persons, see 
    28 C.F.R. § 36.501
    ; DOJ Guidance, 28 C.F.R. pt. 36, app. A (2010) (noting
    the Reservation Rule is borne out of "basic nondiscrimination
    principles") -- just as the statute made the denial of information
    in Havens Realty actionable racial discrimination.
    Next,    echoing     our    colleagues       in   the   Fifth   Circuit,
    Acheson claims that the misrepresentation in Havens Realty had
    "some relevance" to the tester plaintiff, but the information
    Laufer wanted here didn't since she never wanted to book a room at
    the Inn.   See Mann Hosp., 996 F.3d at 273.              But the only relevance
    the misrepresentation had to the Black tester plaintiff in Havens
    Realty was to help her figure out if the defendant was breaking
    the law by engaging in racial steering.                 See 
    455 U.S. at
    373–74.
    And she had standing.         
    Id.
         Same goes here.          See also Laufer v.
    Arpan LLC, 
    29 F.4th 1268
    , 1281 (11th Cir. 2022) (Jordan, J.,
    concurring) (explaining why this distinction doesn't work).5
    5 Similarly, the credit-union cases relied on by Acheson are
    inapposite. Those cases concluded an ADA tester had no standing
    to sue for credit-union websites' failure to have information in
    a format accessible to disabled persons where there was a legal
    bar to the plaintiff joining the credit union. See, e.g., Carello
    v. Aurora Policemen Credit Union, 
    930 F.3d 830
    , 834 (7th Cir. 2019)
    (Barrett, J.); Griffin v. Dep't of Lab. Fed. Credit Union, 
    912 F.3d 649
    , 654 (4th Cir. 2019). There are no legal bars to Laufer's
    - 23 -
    Further, Acheson posits that Laufer wasn't injured in
    the way the statute was designed to protect since she wasn't
    prevented from reserving a room.     Au contraire:   The regulation
    was not designed only to make sure that a disabled person could
    book a room -- the Reservation Rule's requirements are meant to
    ensure that disabled persons can "assess independently whether a
    given hotel or guest room meets his or her accessibility needs."
    
    28 C.F.R. § 36.302
    (e)(1)(ii).    The rule recognizes that the public
    information on accessibility features is necessary to make sure
    disabled persons are "able to reserve hotel rooms with the same
    efficiency, immediacy, and convenience as those who do not need
    accessible guest rooms."   DOJ Guidance, 28 C.F.R. pt. 36, app. A
    (2010).   Denying Laufer the same "efficiency, immediacy, and
    convenience" as those not requiring accommodations is exactly the
    discrimination the regulations are trying to stamp out.
    booking a room at the Inn.     See also Carello, 930 F.3d at 834
    (Barrett, J.) (making clear the holding was "no broader" than one
    about plaintiffs who are "legally barred" from using the
    defendant's services (emphasis in original)).        Additionally,
    Carello affirmed the proposition that in "informational injury"
    cases (which, according to that court, "typically" but do not
    exclusively involve "sunshine law[s]"), "a plaintiff 'need not
    allege any additional harm beyond' [her] failure to receive
    information that the law renders subject to disclosure." 930 F.3d
    at 835 (quoting Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 341).
    - 24 -
    ii.
    Nor, with respect, do we find our sibling circuits'
    explanations of why Laufer doesn't have standing under Havens
    Realty, or Public Citizen, persuasive.
    The Second Circuit recently said a Reservation-Rule
    tester plaintiff had no concrete injury because he couldn't "show
    . . . an 'interest in using the information beyond bringing his
    lawsuit.'"       Harty, 28 F.4th at 444 (cleaned up, then a new
    alteration added) (quoting Looper, 22 F.4th at 881); see also
    Laufer v. Ganesha Hosp. LLC, No. 21-995, 
    2022 WL 2444747
    , at *2
    (2d Cir. July 5, 2022) (summary order) (applying Harty to a suit
    brought by Laufer in Connecticut).         So Havens Realty didn't help
    the plaintiff, the court said, because it shows testers can have
    standing only when they suffer some actual injury. Harty, 28 F.4th
    at 444.   But that distinction really doesn't do anything.         No one
    disputes that being a tester alone doesn't give you standing --
    the question is whether the test left her with some injury.            And
    our judicial neighbors did not explain why the ADA tester plaintiff
    didn't suffer an injury but the Black tester plaintiff in Havens
    Realty    did,   even   though   her   only   "interest   in   using   the
    information" was testing compliance and bringing her lawsuit --
    just as with an ADA-Reservation-Rule tester.
    The Tenth Circuit suggested there lies some distinction
    in the fact that Havens Realty involved a misrepresentation, but
    - 25 -
    the     ADA-Reservation-Rule         cases     involve    a    lack    of     any
    representation.       See Looper, 22 F.4th at 879.            Yet that seems a
    distinction without a difference.              In either case, in order to
    shine a light on unlawful discrimination, the law conferred on the
    plaintiff    "a   legal     right    to   truthful    information"    about   an
    accommodation.     Havens Realty, 
    455 U.S. at 373
    ; see also Arpan, 29
    F.4th at 1282 (Jordan, J., concurring).
    The Tenth Circuit also thought that Akins and Public
    Citizen made clear years ago that there needed to be a downstream
    consequence from the denial of information.              See Looper, 22 F.4th
    at    881.    True,   the    Court   in   both   cases   described    what    the
    plaintiffs wanted to do with the information they sought.                     See
    Akins, 
    524 U.S. at 21
     (noting the plaintiffs wanted to use the
    information "to evaluate candidates for public office" and "the
    role that [the organization]'s financial assistance might play in
    a specific election"); Pub. Citizen, 
    491 U.S. at 449
     (noting the
    plaintiff wanted to "monitor [the organization's] workings and
    participate more effectively in the judicial selection process").
    But, for one thing, that doesn't show why Havens Realty wouldn't
    still apply and give standing, since the Black tester plaintiff
    there    wanted   the     information     only   to   test    the   defendant's
    compliance with the law. See 
    455 U.S. at
    373–74. And, for another,
    it's hard to square with the Court's clear statement in Public
    Citizen that the Court's "decisions interpreting the Freedom of
    - 26 -
    Information      Act   have   never    suggested    that      those   requesting
    information under it need show more than that they sought and were
    denied specific agency records."               
    491 U.S. at 449
    ; see also
    Maloney, 984 F.3d at 60 (the D.C. Circuit holding that a FOIA
    "requester's circumstances -- why he wants the information, what
    he plans to do with it, what harm he suffered from the failure to
    disclose -- are irrelevant to his standing" (quoting Zivotofsky,
    
    444 F.3d at 617
    )).       That the plaintiff had a reason it wanted the
    information then seems more a matter of factual context than a
    legal rule.      Moreover, the Court recently reaffirmed that "the
    violation   of    a    procedural     right    granted   by    statute   can   be
    sufficient in some circumstances" such that plaintiffs "need not
    allege any additional harm beyond the one Congress has identified,"
    specifically citing Akins and Public Citizen.              Spokeo, 578 U.S. at
    342.    And when giving its parenthetical explanations of Akins and
    Public Citizen, the Court did not mention any of the "downstream
    effects" the plaintiffs in those cases may have suffered from the
    denial of information or their purpose for the information -- just
    that they were denied information a statute gave them the right to
    have.   See id.
    We understand that our sibling circuits thought Havens
    Realty doesn't decide this case.              But we respectfully disagree.
    - 27 -
    None has convincingly explained why Havens Realty can't illuminate
    the path to decision.6
    d.
    What's more, Laufer suffered a concrete injury in fact
    even if TransUnion ushered in a new era of informational injury.
    TransUnion says that informational injuries need to "cause[] . . .
    adverse effects" to satisfy Article III.            141 S. Ct. at 2214
    (quoting   Trichell,   964   F.3d    at    1004).   One   could   read   the
    informational injury to the Black tester plaintiff in Havens Realty
    as doing so:   She was discriminated against in violation of the
    law. Dignitary harm or stigmatic injuries caused by discrimination
    have long been held a concrete injury in fact, even without
    informational injury.    See Heckler v. Mathews, 
    465 U.S. 728
    , 738-
    40 (1984); see also Allen, 
    468 U.S. at 755
     (individuals personally
    denied equal treatment under the law can have standing); Carello
    6 Reinforcing our view that Havens Realty can be relied on
    here is that other cases exist where the Court compared the ADA
    with the FHA or Title VII (two other of the nation's most important
    antidiscrimination regimes) to guide a decision under one of those
    statutory schemes. See, e.g., Bragdon v. Abbott, 
    524 U.S. 624
    ,
    631 (1998) (looking to the definition of "handicap" in the Fair
    Housing Amendments Act and its interpretation by other courts for
    guidance in interpreting the "ADA's definition of disability");
    Buckhannon Bd. & Care Home, Inc. v. W. Va. Dep't of Health & Hum.
    Servs., 
    532 U.S. 598
    , 610 (2001) (in a case brought under both the
    ADA and the Fair Housing Amendments Act, interpreting in parallel
    the definition of "prevailing party" in the attorney fees
    provisions of both statutes); Univ. of Tex. Sw. Med. Ctr. v.
    Nassar, 
    570 U.S. 338
    , 357 (2013) (in a Title VII case, contrasting
    the direct discussion of workplace retaliation in the ADA with the
    absence of similar "clear textual terms" in Title VII).
    - 28 -
    v. Aurora Policemen Credit Union, 
    930 F.3d 830
    , 833-34 (7th Cir.
    2019) (Barrett, J.) ("There is no doubt that dignitary harm is
    cognizable;     stigmatic      injury    is    'one   of   the    most   serious
    consequences'        of      discrimination."         (citation      omitted)).
    "[D]iscrimination itself, by perpetuating 'archaic and stereotypic
    notions' or by stigmatizing members of the disfavored group as
    'innately inferior' and therefore as less worthy participants in
    the political community, can cause serious noneconomic injuries to
    those persons who are personally denied equal treatment solely
    because of their membership in a disfavored group."                Heckler, 
    465 U.S. at
    739–40 (citation omitted). Indeed, TransUnion itself cited
    Allen and "discriminatory treatment" as an example of "concrete,
    de facto injuries that were previously inadequate at law" that
    "Congress   may   'elevate      to    the   status    of   legally   cognizable
    injuries.'"     141 S. Ct. at 2204–05 (quoting Spokeo, 578 U.S. at
    341).
    Laufer        alleges     she      suffered    "frustration      and
    humiliation" when Acheson's reservation portals didn't give her
    adequate information about whether she could take advantage of the
    accommodations. Without that information, Laufer is put on unequal
    footing to experience the world in the same way as those who do
    not have disabilities.              She alleges that the "discriminatory
    conditions" on Acheson's website contribute to her "sense of
    segregation and isolation" and deprive her of "full and equal
    - 29 -
    enjoyment        of        the     goods,        services,         facilities,          and/or
    accommodations available to the general public."                              Avoiding that
    was part of the point of the ADA -- the Act "is a measure expected
    to   advance          equal-citizenship              stature       for        persons    with
    disabilities"         by    aiming       to    "guarantee      a    baseline      of     equal
    citizenship by protecting against stigma and systematic exclusion
    from public and private opportunities."                        Lane, 
    541 U.S. at 536
    (Ginsburg, J., concurring) (cleaned up).                       In a similar case, the
    Eleventh Circuit found that this harm alleged by Laufer                                    was
    sufficient stigmatic injury to give rise to Article III standing.
    Arpan, 29 F.4th at 1274.                We need not decide that exact issue here.
    Rather,     we    find           that     Laufer's      feelings         of     frustration,
    humiliation, and second-class citizenry are indeed "downstream
    consequences" and "adverse effects" of the informational injury
    she experienced.           See TransUnion, 141 S. Ct. at 2214.                    So even if
    post-TransUnion a plaintiff in the same shoes as the Black tester
    plaintiff in Havens Realty must show some "additional harm" from
    the denial of information to demonstrate a concrete injury, Laufer
    still meets that newly set bar.
    D.
    Pulling out all the stops, Acheson also contends that
    Laufer's injury is not particularized.                    On top of being concrete,
    the plaintiff's injury must be particularized to show injury in
    fact.   Amrhein, 954 F.3d at 330–31.                   Particularized means that the
    - 30 -
    injury must "affect the plaintiff in a personal and individual
    way." Spokeo, 578 U.S. at 339 (quoting Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife,
    
    504 U.S. 555
    , 560 n.1 (1992)).              In other words, the injury has to
    be   "personal,"    "distinct,"        and    "not    undifferentiated."           
    Id.
    (cleaned up and citations omitted).             In contrast, "[i]njuries that
    are too 'widely shared' or are 'comparable to the common concern
    for obedience to the law'" may not be particularized.                        Lyman v.
    Baker, 
    954 F.3d 351
    , 361 (1st Cir. 2020) (quoting Becker v. Fed.
    Election    Comm'n,    
    230 F.3d 381
    ,    390   (1st     Cir.    2000)).      The
    particularization requirement "reflects the commonsense notion
    that the party asserting standing . . . must allege that he,
    himself,    is   among      the   persons     injured    by    th[e       defendant's]
    conduct."     Hochendoner, 823 F.3d at 731–32.                That way we ensure
    the issue is sharpened "in a concrete factual context" with parties
    with "a direct stake in the outcome."                Id. (citations omitted).
    Under     any    reading    of    Havens     Realty      or    TransUnion,
    Laufer's injury is particularized. As a pure informational injury,
    Laufer was not given information she personally had a right to
    under the ADA and its regulations, causing her precisely the type
    of harm Congress and the regulation sought to curb -- the unequal
    ability to know what accommodations a person with disabilities can
    take advantage of.          See Havens Realty, 
    455 U.S. at 374
     (the Black
    tester plaintiff had standing because she "alleged injury to her
    statutorily      created      right    to     truthful      housing       information"
    - 31 -
    (emphasis added)).     And she alleges that she personally suffered
    the   loss   of   dignity   in    feeling    less   than   equal,   enduring
    humiliation, frustration, and embarrassment.               See Heckler, 
    465 U.S. at
    739–40; cf. Allen, 
    468 U.S. at
    755–56 (dignitary harm from
    discrimination wasn't concrete because the discrimination wasn't
    personally experienced); Carello, 930 F.3d at 834 (concreteness
    and particularity are "two sides of the same coin" for dignitary
    harms since discrimination that doesn't impact the plaintiff isn't
    concrete and also doesn't affect the plaintiff in an individual
    way). Those harms affected her "in a personal and individual way."
    Lujan, 
    504 U.S. at
    560 n.1.
    Further, contrary to Acheson's suggestions, Laufer's
    claim is not a generalized grievance based on her desire that
    Acheson follow the law.          For starters, the Court's generalized-
    grievance cases typically focus on allegedly unlawful conduct by
    the government, 
    id. at 576
    , and are driven, at least in part, by
    separation-of-powers concerns with the courts supervising the co-
    equal branches' activities, see 
    id. at 577
    .           But even more, Lujan
    also recognized that "[n]othing in [it] contradicts the principle
    that 'the injury required by Art. III may exist solely by virtue
    of "statutes creating legal rights, the invasion of which creates
    standing,"'" even though the right is widely shared.             
    Id. at 578
    (cleaned up with new alterations added) (quoting Warth, 
    422 U.S. at 500
    ).     Nothing in the ADA or its regulations "abandon[s] the
    - 32 -
    requirement that the party seeking review must [her]self have
    suffered an injury."   See 
    id.
     (quoting Sierra Club v. Morton, 
    405 U.S. 727
    , 738 (1972)).    As we've already explained, the ADA and
    its regulations offer a route to those themselves suffering an
    injury by being discriminated against on the basis of their
    disability.    It does not permit anybody to sue just because she
    saw an ADA violation.     See 
    42 U.S.C. § 12188
    (a)(1); 
    28 C.F.R. § 36.501
    (a).    Which shows the differentiation of the injury:
    Laufer is a person with disabilities -- not just any one of the
    hundreds of millions of Americans with a laptop -- and personally
    suffered the denial of information the law entitles her, as a
    person with disabilities, to have.
    IV.
    Onward we go to the next step of the standing analysis
    -- Laufer's standing to seek injunctive relief.7
    The party seeking review has to show they have standing
    for each form of relief they seek.     Friends of the Earth, Inc. v.
    Laidlaw Env't Servs. (TOC), Inc., 
    528 U.S. 167
    , 185 (2000).     For
    Laufer's claim for injunctive relief, demonstrating her "past
    exposure to illegal conduct" -- here, her pre-suit encounters with
    7 To be clear, Laufer's complaint seeks only declaratory and
    injunctive relief, as well as attorney's fees and costs. It does
    not seek damages for past violations. Damages are not an available
    remedy for private suits under Title III of the ADA. See 
    42 U.S.C. § 12188
    (a)(1); 
    28 C.F.R. § 36.501
    (a); see also G. v. Fay Sch., 
    931 F.3d 1
    , 9 (1st Cir. 2019).
    - 33 -
    Acheson's reservation system on its and third parties' websites --
    isn't "in itself" sufficient to show standing absent "continuing,
    present adverse effects."      City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, 
    461 U.S. 95
    , 102 (1983) (quoting O'Shea v. Littleton, 
    414 U.S. 488
    , 495-96
    (1974)).      Standing for injunctive relief depends on "whether [s]he
    [i]s likely to suffer future injury," 
    id.
     at 105 -- that is, "a
    sufficient likelihood that she will again be wronged in a similar
    way," Gray v. Cummings, 
    917 F.3d 1
    , 19 (1st Cir. 2019) (quoting
    Am. Postal Workers Union v. Frank, 
    968 F.2d 1373
    , 1376 (1st Cir.
    1992)).
    That proviso is sometimes referred to as "imminence."
    See, e.g., Berner v. Delahanty, 
    129 F.3d 20
    , 24 (1st Cir. 1997).
    Though    a   "somewhat   elastic   concept,"   imminence   shouldn't   be
    stretched too far -- it "ensure[s] that the alleged injury is not
    too speculative for Article III purposes."        Lujan, 
    504 U.S. at
    564
    n.2.     At bottom, it requires that the injury not be "conjectural"
    or "hypothetical" or simply "possible."         See Clapper, 
    568 U.S. at 412, 416, 420
    .       For an injury to be imminent enough to provide
    standing, it must be "certainly impending."        
    Id. at 416
    .
    Describing the imminence of a future harm, our judicial
    higher-ups have said that a plaintiff's proclaimed "'intent' to
    return to the places they had visited before -- where they will
    presumably, this time, be [injured again] -- is simply not enough."
    Lujan, 
    504 U.S. at 564
    .       For example, plaintiffs' averred intent
    - 34 -
    to visit Egypt and Sri Lanka at some unspecified point "[i]n the
    future" was insufficient to show an imminent injury.          See 
    id.
     at
    563–64.    "Such 'some day' intentions -- without any description of
    concrete plans, or indeed even any specification of when the some
    day will be -- do not support a finding of the 'actual or imminent'
    injury."    
    Id. at 564
    .
    Here, though, Laufer's plans to revisit the websites are
    far from those "some day intentions" found insufficient in Lujan
    -- she's alleged her "concrete plans" to go back to the websites
    in the near future.        As an ADA tester, Laufer says she has a
    sophisticated system to continue monitoring the non-compliant
    websites she finds.       She visits the website multiple times before
    filing her complaints, and then schedules herself to review the
    website again after the complaint is filed.       And she says she will
    revisit Acheson's online reservation system "[i]n the near future"
    to test its ADA compliance.        So, far from a mere possibility that
    someday Laufer will eventually head overseas to Sri Lanka or Egypt
    to see an endangered species that'll be forced into extinction,
    she has given her "description of [her] concrete plans" to re-
    visit the websites, easily accessible from her home, in the near
    future.    See Lujan, 
    504 U.S. at
    563–64; cf. Carney, 141 S. Ct. at
    501–03 (plaintiff's assertion that he "would apply" for the job,
    "without    any   actual    past   injury,   without   reference   to   an
    anticipated timeframe, . . . and without any other supporting
    - 35 -
    evidence" was not sufficient in a "highly fact-specific case");
    Summers v. Earth Island Inst., 
    555 U.S. 488
    , 496 (2009) (an
    assertion that the plaintiff "wants to go" to the area affected is
    too "vague").     Take all of that, too, with the fact that Laufer is
    a self-proclaimed ADA tester who makes it her vocation to test
    websites for ADA compliance.      See Houston v. Marod Supermarkets,
    Inc., 
    733 F.3d 1323
    , 1340 (11th Cir. 2013) (considering that "ADA
    testing appears to be [the plaintiff's] avocation or at least what
    he does on a daily basis").      Also, importantly, Laufer asserts in
    her reply brief that while Acheson has made its website ADA-
    compliant, Acheson hasn't persuaded the third-party reservation
    services to do the same (a point we return to in section V).           Her
    likelihood   of     future   injury    is   far   from   conjectural   or
    hypothetical; it's sufficiently imminent.8
    V.
    Swinging its final punch, Acheson tucks in a quick
    suggestion that the case may also be moot.         It says that because
    its website now shows that the Inn has no ADA-compliant lodging,
    Laufer can't contend that she'll suffer the same injury again.
    Mootness is another part of the Article III case-or-
    controversy schema.      Because we "decide only live controversies
    8 Judge Howard agrees that the complaint adequately alleges
    standing for declaratory relief, but he is doubtful that it
    sufficiently alleges standing to pursue injunctive relief.
    - 36 -
    that will have a real effect on real parties in interest," we don't
    decide cases where the parties' dispute has since been resolved.
    Bos. Bit Labs, Inc. v. Baker, 
    11 F.4th 3
    , 8 (1st Cir. 2021); see
    Chafin, 
    568 U.S. at 172
    .          Since mootness goes to our Article III
    jurisdiction,     we   have   to    cross-check      for   it   throughout    the
    litigation:   "'It is not enough that a dispute was very much alive
    when suit was filed'; the parties must 'continue'" -- even on
    appeal -- "'to have a personal stake' in the ultimate disposition
    of the lawsuit."       Chafin, 568 U.S. at 172 (cleaned up) (quoting
    Lewis v. Cont'l Bank Corp., 
    494 U.S. 472
    , 477-78 (1990)).
    Yet   getting     a    case   declared    moot   is   a    "demanding
    standard" -- one met only when "'it is impossible for a court to
    grant any effectual relief whatever' to [the plaintiff] assuming
    it prevails."     Mission Prod. Holdings, 
    139 S. Ct. at 1660
     (quoting
    Chafin, 
    568 U.S. at 172
    ).            The "heavy burden" of meeting that
    demanding standard falls on the party asserting mootness; so here,
    Acheson.    Bos. Bit Labs, 11 F.4th at 8.            Acheson hasn't met it.
    Laufer's alleged violations are not just about what was
    (or more aptly, wasn't) on Acheson's own website.                     Laufer also
    alleged that Acheson violated the Reservation Rule via the booking
    portals on third-party booking websites, like Hotels.com.                  And as
    noted earlier, she avers that although Acheson's own website made
    changes, it hasn't gotten the third parties to update their
    websites.
    - 37 -
    Again, to assess mootness, we need not decide whether
    Acheson can be held liable for those third-party websites' non-
    compliance. That a plaintiff's ultimate recovery "may be uncertain
    or even unlikely . . . is of no moment" to the mootness inquiry.
    Mission Prod. Holdings, 139 S. Ct. at 1660.             Instead, we assume
    the claim's legal validity to determine whether it is nonetheless
    moot.   See Town of Portsmouth v. Lewis, 
    813 F.3d 54
    , 61 (1st Cir.
    2016); see also Mission Prod. Holdings, 
    139 S. Ct. at 1660
    .
    And, for the record, nothing seems "so implausible,"
    Chafin, 
    568 U.S. at 174
    , or "wholly insubstantial and frivolous"
    about Laufer's claim based on the third-party websites, see Town
    of Portsmouth, 813 F.3d at 61.        Acheson hasn't suggested that the
    third-party     websites   have   been    updated,   and   the   regulations
    provide that the public accommodation's obligations extend to
    "reservations made by any means, including . . . through a third
    party."    
    28 C.F.R. § 36.302
    (e)(1); see DOJ Guidance, 28 C.F.R. pt.
    36, app. A (2010) (rejecting hotels' notice-and-comment arguments
    that "they are unable to control the actions of unrelated parties"
    and   stating    that   hotels    "that   use    third-party     reservations
    services    . . .   must   provide   these      third-party    services   with
    information concerning the accessible features of the hotel and
    the accessible rooms").      Nor has Acheson represented that it made
    that information available to all of the thirteen third-party
    booking websites that Laufer alleges were non-compliant, but they
    - 38 -
    just haven't put the info online.          Cf. DOJ Guidance, 28 C.F.R. pt.
    36,   app.   A   (2010)   (providing       that   if   the    hotel    makes   the
    information      about   accessibility      available    to   the     third-party
    booking website but the third-party doesn't give the information
    out, the hotel "will not be responsible").               So there's still a
    live claim to decide.9
    *      *      *
    For all these reasons, the district court has Article
    III jurisdiction over this case (at least for now).                 The judgment
    of the district court is therefore reversed, and the case is
    remanded for further proceedings.           Costs to appellant.
    9Given our conclusion, we need not decide at this point
    whether the changes to Acheson's own website in response to this
    litigation would be sufficient to moot the case in the absence of
    the allegations concerning unremediated third-party websites. See
    Friends of the Earth, 
    528 U.S. at 189
     ("[A] defendant's voluntary
    cessation of a challenged practice does not deprive a federal court
    of its power to determine the legality of the practice" unless it
    is "absolutely clear that the allegedly wrongful behavior could
    not reasonably be expected to recur." (citation and internal
    quotation marks omitted)).
    - 39 -