Opinion of BRENNAN, J. 426 U.S. to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment." Ibid. If, as the Court assumes, respondents had demonstrated that the disputed Ruling had application to the hospitals affecting them, I would have no doubt that this standard had been met. In such a case I would readily conclude: "[T]he challenged governmental activity . . . is not contingent, . . . and, by its continuing and brooding presence, casts what may well be a substantial adverse effect on the interests of the [responding] parties. "Where such state action or its imminence adversely affects the status of private parties, the courts should be available to render appropriate relief and judgments affecting the parties' rights and interests." Super Tire Engineering Co. v. McCorkle, 416 U. S. 115, 122, 125 (1974). B Second, the Court's treatment of the injury-in-fact requirement directly conflicts with past decisions. Respondents brought this action seeking general statutory review of administrative action under the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. Hence, the governing precedents respecting standing are those developed in Data Processing Service v. Camp, 397 U. S. 150 (1970); Barlow v. Collins, 397 U. S. 159 (1970); Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U. S. 727 (1972); and United States v. SCRAP, 412 U. S. 669 (1973). See also Hardin v. Kentucky Utilities Co., 390 U. S. 1 (1968). Any prudential, nonconstitutional considerations that underlay the Court's disposition of the injury-in-fact standing requirement in cases such as Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 26 Opinion of BRENNAN, J. U. S. 614 (1973), and Warth v. Seldin, 422 U. S. 490 (1975), are simply inapposite when review is sought under a congressionally enacted statute conferring standing and providing for judicial review. In such a case considerations respecting "the allocation of power at the national level [and] a shift away from a democratic form of government," United States v. Richardson, 418 U. S., at 188 (POWELL, J., concurring), are largely ameliorated, and such prudential limitations as remain are supposedly 'We were originally told in Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 U. S., at 617, 619, that the treatment of the injury-in-fact standing requirement, and the consequent dismissal of the case owing to the lack of a "direct nexus" between the injury incurred and the wrongful action alleged, was a consequence of the "unique context of a challenge to a criminal statute," and the "special status of criminal prosecutions in our system." Although this conclusion was arguable even in its specific context, see id., at 621 (WHITE, J., dissenting), last Term's Warth v. Seldin, 422 U. S. 490 (1975), taught that the raising of the threshold requirement for pleading injury in fact in Linda R. S. was not "unique" after all. But whatever the merits of the treatment of the injuryin-fact requirement in those cases, it is distressing that the Court should mechanically apply the approach developed therein to a case brought under the Administrative Procedure Act without any analysis, see ante, at 37-39, and n. 16, of the only constitutional dimension of standing-the requirement of concrete adverseness flowing from a personal stake in the outcome. See United States v. Richardson, 418 U. S. 166, 181 (1974) (POWELL, J., concurring). The Court has read the standing provision of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U. S. C. § 702, which provides for review for any "person adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute," as conferring standing upon any person whose interest is adversely affected in fact, so long as that interest comes within the purposes and policies of the statute or statutes authorizing the agency action in question ("within the meaning of a relevant statute"). See Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U. S., at 732-733; Albert, Standing to Challenge Administrative Action: An Inadequate Surrogate for Claim for Relief, 83 Yale L. J. 425, 451-452, n. 105 (1974). Opinion of BRENNAN, J. 426 U.S. subsumed under the "zone of interests" test developed in Data Processing Service v. Camp, supra. See United States v. Richardson, supra, at 196 n. 18 (PoWELL, J., concurring). Our previous decisions concerning standing to sue under the Administrative Procedure Act conclusively show that the injury in fact demanded is the constitutional minimum identified in Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S., at 204—the allegation of such a "personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure" concrete adverseness. Sierra Club v. Morton, supra, at 732–733; Data Processing Service v. Camp, supra, at 151-152. True, the Court has required that the person seeking review allege that he personally has suffered or will suffer the injury sought to be avoided, Sierra Club, supra, at 740. But there can be no doubt that respondents here, by demonstrating a connection between the disputed Ruling and the hospitals affecting them, could have adequately served the policy implicated by the pleading requirement of Sierra Club-putting "the decision as to whether review will be sought in the hands of those who have a direct stake in the outcome." Ibid. In such a case respondents would not be attempting merely to "vindicate their own value preferences through the judicial process." Ibid. See Albert, supra, n. 8, at 485–489. If such a showing were made, a real and recognizable harm to tangible interest would have been alleged, indeed more so than we have required in other circumstances. United States v. SCRAP, supra; Sierra Club v. Morton, supra; It is my view, however, that such considerations go only to other questions of justiciability or to questions of the reviewability of the administrative action, and not properly to the question of standing. Barlow v. Collins, 397 U. S., at 168-170, 171 n. 3, 173-175 (opinion of BRENNAN, J.). 26 ... Opinion of BRENNAN, J. cf. Barlow v. Collins, supra, at 163.10 Moreover, the injury alleged would be a "distinctive or discriminating' . harm," id., at 172 n. 5 (opinion of BRENNAN, J.), clearly a "particularized injury [setting respondents] apart from the man on the street." United States v. Richardson, supra, at 194 (POWELL, J., concurring). Furthermore, our decisions regarding standing to sue in actions brought under the Administrative Procedure Act make plain that standing is not to be denied merely because the ultimate harm alleged is a threatened future one rather than an accomplished fact. United States v. SCRAP, supra; Sierra Club v. Morton, supra. Nor has the fact that the administrative action ulti 10 It clearly cannot be determinative for purposes of constitutionally required standing that there is only a probabilistic connection between the immediate interest, to which injury is alleged, and some more ultimate injury to the complaining party. United States v. SCRAP, 412 U. S., at 689 n. 14, specifically rejected the argument that for standing purposes "significant" injury must be alleged. Rather, the Court held that Art. III policies were adequately fulfilled even though the ultimate injury is very small indeed. Ibid. Clearly there is no difference for purposes of Art. III standingpersonal interest sufficient for concrete adverseness-between a small but certain injury and a harm of a larger magnitude discounted by some probability of its nonoccurrence. If the probability of the more ultimate harm is so small as to make the claim clearly frivolous, "the plaintiff can be hastened from the court by summary judgment." Barlow v. Collins, supra, at 175 n. 10 (opinion of BRENNAN, J.); United States v. SCRAP, supra, at 689, and n. 15. See, e. g., Granite Falls State Bank v. Schneider, 319 F. Supp. 1346 (WD Wash. 1970), summarily aff'd, 402 U. S. 1006 (1971). Obviously, however, if the respondents had demonstrated that the IRS was "encouraging" the hospitals affecting them to withdraw provision of medical services for indigents, the probability of the occurrence of the more ultimate injury would be sufficient to confer standing upon the respondents to challenge the action. Opinion of BRENNAN, J. 426 U.S. mately affects the complaining party only through responses to incentives by third parties been fatal to the standing of those who would challenge that action. United States v. SCRAP, supra; Barlow v. Collins, supra. And the ultimate harm to respondents threatened here is obviously much more "direct and perceptible" and the "line of causation" less "attenuated" than that found sufficient for standing in United States v. SCRAP, 412 U. S., at 688. Certainly the Court's attempted distinction of SCRAP will not "wash." The Court states that in SCRAP, “although the injury was indirect and 'the Court was asked to follow an attenuated line of causation,' . . . the complaint nevertheless 'alleged a specific and perceptible harm' flowing from the agency action." Ante, at 45 n. 25. The instant case is different, the Court says, because the complaint "fails to allege an injury that fairly can be traced" to the allegedly wrongful action. I find it simply impossible fairly and meaningfully to differentiate between the allegations of the two sets of pleadings. Compare App. 13-25 in this case with App. 8-12 in No. 72562, O. T. 1972, Aberdeen & Rockfish R. Co. v. SCRAP. The Court complains that "whether the injuries fairly can be traced to [the disputed] Ruling depends upon unalleged and unknown facts about the relevant hospitals." Ante, at 45 n. 25. It is obvious that the complaint in SCRAP lacked precisely the same specific factual allegations; there, however, the Court's response was much more in keeping with modern notions of civil procedure. 412 U. S., at 689–690, and n. 15. Moreover, apart from the specificity required of the pleadings, it is not apparent why these "unalleged and unknown facts about the relevant hospitals" are required to establish injury in fact at all. As the Court notes, ante, at 42 n. 23, the earlier Revenue Ruling requires a hospital only to provide medical care "to the ex |