HARRISBURG — A federal appeals court Thursday declined to reinstate a lawsuit over how a state government pay raise law was rammed through the Pennsylvania Legislature nearly four years ago.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Harrisburg-based district court judge's decision in 2006 to throw out the lawsuit by Common Cause of Pennsylvania and others, saying the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to sue.

"Clearly these allegations, which challenge the legislative process, are insufficient to allege more than a generalized, abstract grievance, shared by all Pennsylvania citizens," wrote Judge David M. Ebel for the three-judge panel.

The lawsuit against the state's governor, chief justice and legislative leaders claimed the General Assembly circumvented constitutional rules for lawmaking when it approved pay raises for itself, judges and executive branch officials in the dead of night in July 2005.

The law triggered intense public backlash and was later repealed, although the state Supreme Court subsequently reinstated the judges' higher pay.

The plaintiffs — which also included the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters; state Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware; and four others — had argued that Common Cause was qualified to sue because it has a history of challenging the Legislature's actions and was likely to sue over the pay raise law, too.

Lawyer John P. Krill, who represented some of the legislative leaders who are defendants in the case, said the decision was "a tightly reasoned analysis of classic jurisprudence on federal court standing."

"The Senate and the House have changed their procedures, and of course that was done democratically, in the right way," Krill said. "But actually, the kinds of things, many of the things the plaintiffs are complaining of here are the kinds of things Congress does every day of the week before breakfast."

Common Cause of Pennsylvania executive director Barry Kauffman said a decision about whether to pursue further appeals has not been made.

"We thought we had a really strong case and we're disappointed," Kauffman said.

Plaintiff Tim Potts, co-founder of the government reform group Democracy Rising PA, said the ruling amounted to "the same thing that Wall Street is telling us: If they steal from everyone, no one has a right to complain."