Also known as: symbiotic relationships
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A relationship between a state and a private actor in which the government and the private party function as joint participants in an enterprise. The relationship typically arises when the state owns or maintains a public facility, leases space to the private actor, and receives direct financial benefits such as rent or a share of profits from the actor's operations.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
The City Parking Authority owns and operates a multilevel garage with attached storefronts. It leases one space to Starlight Media under terms granting the authority base rent plus a percentage of gross sales and featuring the tenant in official city marketing. When Starlight Media refuses entry to Samuel Soto because he appears homeless, the authority's financial stake and promotional role make the refusal attributable to the state.
Sierra Solutions, a private construction firm, faces a negligence suit in state court. During jury selection its counsel uses peremptory strikes to remove nearly all prospective jurors of one racial group while the judge oversees the process and rules on challenges. The firm's ongoing lease of courthouse space and revenue-sharing arrangement with the court create the mutual financial dependence that renders the strikes state action under a symbiotic relationship.
The state secondary school athletic association adopts eligibility rules that bind all member schools. Public schools dominate the association's governing board and the association receives state funding and facilities. When the association enforces a rule against a private academy, the close operational and financial ties render the enforcement state action under a symbiotic relationship.
Moose Lodge operates a private club in its own building and holds a state liquor license. The state neither owns the premises nor shares in the club's revenue. A member denied service on racial grounds cannot attribute the denial to the state because the relationship lacks the mutual financial dependence required for state action.
Metropolitan Edison, a privately owned utility, terminates service to a customer under procedures approved by the state commission. The utility enjoys a partial monopoly and faces extensive regulation, yet the state neither owns its facilities nor participates in the specific termination decision. The termination remains private conduct because no symbiotic financial or operational interdependence exists.
A state statute requires the consent of an unwed father before a child can be adopted. The father has never supported or acknowledged the child. Because the statute merely sets a neutral rule of decision and does not compel or encourage any private party to act, the adoption proceeding does not involve state action by the mother or agency under a symbiotic relationship.
A symbiotic relationship exists when the state owns or maintains the facility, receives a percentage of the private tenant's gross receipts, and actively promotes the tenant as part of a public project. Mere payment of fixed rent without profit sharing or branding usually falls short.
Supporting sources
Symbiotic relationship focuses on mutual financial and operational interdependence between the state and a private actor. The public function test instead asks whether the private actor performs a task traditionally and exclusively reserved to the state, regardless of any ongoing partnership.
…its action in doing so "state action" for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment. We also find absent in the instant case the symbiotic relationship presented in Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority , 365 U. S. 715 (1961). There where a private lessee, who practiced racial discrimination, leased space for a restaurant from a state…
…Parking Authority , 365 U. S. 715 (1961). See ante , at 621, 624. But the decision in that case depended on the perceived symbiotic relationship
…v. Kohn , 457 U. S. 830 (1982), and found no state action under any of them. It said the District Court was mistaken in seeing a
…elements in, the financial success of a governmental agency." 365 U. S., at 723-724. Here there is nothing approaching the symbiotic relationship
…a function which serves the public does not make its acts state action.[^maj-7] Fourth, petitioners argue that there is a "symbiotic relationship
Supporting sources
Profit sharing contributes to a symbiotic finding but is not sufficient by itself. Courts also examine public ownership of the premises, active promotion of the private business, and the degree to which the state benefits from the specific challenged conduct.
Supporting sources
A symbiotic relationship may exist when the litigant leases courthouse space and shares revenue with the court system, creating mutual financial dependence that renders discriminatory strikes attributable to the state.
Supporting sources
The state merely licensed and regulated the private club without owning the premises or sharing in its revenue. The absence of joint financial participation and operational entanglement prevented attribution of the club's discrimination to the state.