New Case on State Action: Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck

Last Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Hallecka case about when and whether a private entity that runs a public access channel is a “state actor.” The question is important because state actors can be held liable for violating constitutional rights; private actors generally cannot. As the Legal Information Institute explains, “[t]he state action requirement stems from the fact that the constitutional amendments which protect individual rights (especially the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment) are mostly phrased as prohibitions against government action.” Depending on how the Court rules and how broadly it reasons, the case could have implications for social media companies, as this CNBC article explains.

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