Also known as: governmental functions · government function · public function
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A government agency's conduct that is expressly or impliedly mandated or authorized by constitution, statute, or other law and that is carried out for the benefit of the general public. Traditional examples include police and fire protection as well as jury selection and waste management when performed by public entities.
The city of Riverton enacted an ordinance requiring all construction debris to be taken to its municipally owned recovery center. Gable Construction attempted to haul debris to a private out-of-state recycler instead. The ordinance survived Dormant Commerce Clause challenge because it directed waste to a public facility performing a traditional governmental function rather than favoring private operators.
In a civil contract dispute between Gabriel Gonzalez and Griffin Industries, Gonzalez used peremptory challenges to strike all prospective jurors of one race. The court held that the strikes constituted state action because jury selection is a traditional public function performed with significant judicial participation, so the challenges could not be exercised in a racially discriminatory manner.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
The city operated its own public bus system. City transit workers sued for overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court upheld application of the federal statute because the traditional governmental functions test had been rejected as unworkable and Congress may regulate states and private entities alike under the Commerce Clause.
After Greta Goldstein was assaulted on a state university campus, she sued the attacker under a federal statute creating a civil remedy for gender-motivated violence. The court struck down the statute because the underlying conduct did not involve a governmental function traditionally performed by states and therefore fell outside Congress's enforcement power under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Hawaii's housing authority condemned large tracts of land owned by a few private landowners to redistribute fee simple titles to residents. The landowners challenged the takings as lacking public use. The court upheld the condemnations because determining whether redistribution serves a public purpose is a legislative judgment about governmental functions that courts will not second-guess.
The City of New London condemned waterfront property owned by private residents to assemble land for a mixed-use development project expected to increase tax revenue. The owners argued the takings served no public use. The court upheld the condemnations because legislative judgments about what constitutes a governmental function in promoting economic development receive substantial deference.
A flow-control ordinance directing waste exclusively to a government-owned facility performing a traditional governmental function receives lenient review because the favoritism is presumed to serve legitimate public objectives rather than economic protectionism.
Yes. Jury selection is a traditional public function conducted with significant court participation, so private litigants exercising peremptory challenges in civil cases engage in state action and may not discriminate on the basis of race.
No. The test was rejected as unworkable. States are protected from federal overreach primarily through the political process rather than judicially defined spheres of traditional governmental functions.
…directing the State to enact a certain policy, cf. New York v. United States , 505 U. S. 144 (1992), or to organize its governmental functions in a certain way, cf. FERC v. Mississippi , 456 U. S., at 781 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment in part and dissenting in part). While the intrusion on state sovereignty may not be as…