Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 17, 2019 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- June 17, 2019
- Term
- October Term 2018
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Kavanaugh
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice KAVANAUGH delivered the opinion of the Court. The Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment constrains governmental actors and protects private actors. To draw the line between governmental and private, this Court applies what is known as the state-action doctrine. Under that doctrine, as relevant here, a private entity may be considered a state actor when it exercises a function "traditionally exclusively reserved to the State." Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co. , 419 U.S. 345, 352, 95 S.Ct. 449, 42 L.Ed.2d 477 (1974). This state-action case concerns the public access channels on Time Warner's cable system in Manhattan. Public access channels are available for private citizens to use. The public access channels on Time Warner's cable system in Manhattan are operated by a private nonprofit corporation known as MNN. The question here is whether MNN-even though it is a private entity-nonetheless is a state actor when it operates the public access channels. In other words, is operation of public access channels on a cable system a traditional, exclusive public function? If so, then the First Amendment would restrict MNN's exercise of editorial discretion over the speech and speakers on the public access channels. Under the state-action doctrine as it has been articulated and applied by our precedents, we conclude that operation of public access channels on a cable…
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