State Action Doctrine

1. The state action doctrine of the Supreme Court of the United States (‘Court’) formulates a seemingly simple principle: the US Constitution in general, and its individual rights in particular, apply only to state action, not to private action. State action, as a matter of principle, is all government action, ie action by the executive, legislature, and judiciary at the state and federal level; private action is all non-government action. The principle’s practical result is that, regardless of how strongly an activity protected as a recognized individual right...