Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Assn.
531 U.S. 288 (2001)
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Rule of Law:
A private entity's action constitutes state action when the entity is pervasively entwined with public institutions and public officials. The nominally private character of an entity is overborne by the pervasive entwinement of public institutions and officials in its composition and workings.
Facts:
- The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) is a non-profit corporation that regulates interscholastic sports among its member schools.
- Approximately 84% of the TSSAA's membership consists of public high schools in Tennessee.
- The TSSAA's governing bodies are composed exclusively of high school principals, assistant principals, and superintendents, who are elected by member schools. At the time of the dispute, all voting members of these bodies were public school administrators.
- Historically, the Tennessee State Board of Education formally designated the TSSAA as the organization to supervise and regulate athletic activities in public schools.
- Although the formal designation was removed in 1996, state board members continued to serve on TSSAA committees and TSSAA employees remained eligible for the state's public employee retirement system.
- The TSSAA's revenue is primarily derived from gate receipts at tournaments involving its member schools, many of which are held at public facilities.
- The TSSAA found that Brentwood Academy, a private member school, violated a rule prohibiting 'undue influence' in recruiting athletes by sending letters about spring football practice.
- The TSSAA penalized Brentwood Academy with a four-year probation, a two-year playoff ineligibility for its football and basketball teams, and a $3,000 fine.
Procedural Posture:
- Brentwood Academy sued the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
- The District Court, a court of first instance, granted summary judgment for Brentwood Academy, finding the TSSAA was a state actor and enjoining it from enforcing the recruiting rule.
- The TSSAA, as the appellant, appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
- The Sixth Circuit, an intermediate appellate court, reversed the District Court's judgment, holding that the TSSAA's actions did not constitute state action.
- The U.S. Supreme Court granted Brentwood Academy's petition for a writ of certiorari to resolve a conflict among the circuit courts.
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Issue:
Does a nominally private, statewide interscholastic athletic association, whose membership is overwhelmingly composed of public schools and whose leadership consists of public school officials, engage in state action when it enforces its rules against a member school?
Opinions:
Majority - Justice Souter
Yes, the Association's regulatory activity constitutes state action. The nominally private character of the Association is overborne by the pervasive entwinement of public institutions and public officials in its composition and workings. The court's reasoning is based on the totality of the circumstances, which show an undeniable link between the TSSAA and the State. Key factors include that 84% of its members are public schools, its leadership is dominated by public officials acting in their official capacity, its employees are eligible for the state retirement system, and it has a long history of being designated by the State Board of Education as the regulator of interscholastic athletics. Even after the state formally rescinded this designation, the practical relationship continued through 'winks and nods,' demonstrating that the state and the Association remain deeply intertwined. This entwinement is sufficient to treat the Association's actions as state action, regardless of whether other tests like the public function or state coercion tests are met.
Dissenting - Justice Thomas
No, the Association's enforcement of its recruiting rule is not state action. The majority creates a new, vague 'entwinement' theory that lacks support in precedent and improperly expands the state-action doctrine. The TSSAA is a private, voluntary membership organization that was not created or funded by the State of Tennessee. The State does not coerce or encourage the TSSAA's specific actions, and the TSSAA does not perform a function traditionally and exclusively reserved to the State. The fact that public schools constitute a majority of its membership and that public school officials sit on its board does not transform its private conduct into state action. The decision blurs the critical line between private and public action, which was designed to preserve a sphere of individual freedom from federal law and judicial power.
Analysis:
This decision establishes 'pervasive entwinement' as a significant, fact-intensive basis for finding state action, moving beyond more rigid, traditional tests. It lowers the bar for attributing private conduct to the state by focusing on the practical reality of the relationship rather than formal designations or direct coercion. This precedent makes it more likely that nominally private organizations that are deeply integrated with government entities, such as other state-level athletic or academic associations, will be subject to constitutional constraints. The ruling emphasizes a holistic, functional analysis over formalism in state-action jurisprudence.
