State Action Requirement - Next Generation Bar Exam

1. Under Shelley v. Kraemer, what made enforcement of a racially restrictive covenant state action?

   Judicial enforcement of the covenant by state courts. Private parties may agree to such covenants, but courts may not enforce them.

2. Under Brentwood Academy v. TSSAA, what made a private athletic association a state actor?

   Pervasive entwinement of public school officials in its management. Public schools made up most of the membership and their officials controlled the association.

3. A privately owned shopping mall bans leafleting on its premises. On what ground does the First Amendment not protect the leafleters?

   The mall's owner is not a state actor. Hudgens v. NLRB held that a private shopping center is not the functional equivalent of a company town.

4. Under Blum v. Yaretsky, when does a private party's decision become state action?

   When the state has coerced it or provided such significant encouragement that the choice is the state's. Mere approval or acquiescence by the state is not enough.

5. Under the public function doctrine, when is a private entity a state actor?

   When it performs a function traditionally and exclusively reserved to the state. Examples include running a company town or administering elections.

6. Whom do most constitutional rights provisions restrain?

   Government actors, not private persons. The Thirteenth Amendment is the principal exception.

7. Under Rendell-Baker v. Kohn, what is the effect of substantial government funding on whether a private entity is a state actor?

   Funding alone does not make the entity a state actor. A private school's dismissal of employees was not state action despite heavy public funding.

8. Under Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, what is the status of a private operator of public-access cable channels?

   It is not a state actor, because operating such channels is not a traditional, exclusive public function. Providing a forum for speech is not an exclusively governmental function.

9. Under Lindke v. Freed, when is a public official's social-media activity state action?

   When the official had actual authority to speak for the state and purported to exercise it. Posts made in a purely personal capacity are not state action.

10. Under Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, what made a private restaurant's discrimination state action?

    A symbiotic relationship with the state, which leased it space in a public parking garage and shared in its benefits. Later cases treat Burton narrowly.

11. What is the effect of state licensing or extensive regulation alone on whether a private entity is a state actor?

    It does not make the entity a state actor. Moose Lodge v. Irvis and Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison so held.

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