Rendell-Baker v. Kohn’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 federal appellate · 5 district · 4 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “But the fact remains that there is a strong tradition of private elementary and secondary education in this country, and that special education is clearly not an exclusively public function. Indeed, it is only recently that public school systems have assumed any responsibility for children with special needs; until a few years ago such children were routinely excluded from public schools. The fact that the state has chosen to perform a service, or to require its political subdivisions to do so, does not make that service an inherently public function. The “public function” concept is strongest, moreover, when asserted by those for whose benefit the state has undertaken to perform a service, or when the state has lent its coercive powers to a private party. In this situation, for example, those students of the New Perspectives School who were placed there by their local school committee, particularly those who are compelled to attend under the state’s compulsory education laws, would have a stronger argument than do plaintiffs that the school’s action towards them is taken “under color of” state law, since the school derives its authority over them from the state. See, e.g., McQueen v. Druker, 438 F.2d 781 , in which we found state action in the eviction of tenants by the private owner of a subsidized housing complex. The plaintiffs in this suit, however, are not the intended beneficiaries of the service for which the state has contracted with the school. The school's authorit”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 538 F. Supp. 754 - Gerena v. Puerto Rico Legal Services, Inc. · Milonas v. Williams

2. “The school’s funds do, in fact, derive almost completely from governmental sources. * * * * * * This school’s virtual dependence on state financial support goes well beyond anything we have considered before. Since state funds support every aspect of the school’s operation, everything the school does, it can be argued, is made possible by the state. And the state could, if it chose to do so, veto any action of the school it found objectionable by threatening to withdraw its financial support. But the school’s dependence on state funds, in itself, demonstrates only that the state has the potential to control the school’s operations, not that it actually does so. As a practical matter, the state has the same latent power in relation to any contractor whose primary customer is the state. Indeed the state’s power to control any nominally private institution is limited only by the constitutional boundaries of the police power, even where the state does not provide funding. In practice, of course, the state’s exercise of its power to control an institution is likely to be greater where it assumes the burden of financial support; for that reason, state funding may be significant evidence of state control. But to find that an otherwise privately operated institution is so dominated by the state that all its actions occur “under color of state law,” we must find that the state actually does control the institution, not just that it could do so. In the case of a non-profit organization”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 538 F. Supp. 754 - Gerena v. Puerto Rico Legal Services, Inc.

3. “In Burton , the Court found state action in the discriminatory service policy of a privately operated restaurant located in a publicly owned parking garage. There was no question that the restaurant controlled its own affairs and had reached on its own the decision to refuse service to blacks. But the Court found that “The State has so far insinuated itself into a position of interdependence with Eagle [Coffee Shop] that it must be recognized as a joint participant in the challenged activity.” Id., 365 U.S. at 725 , 81 S.Ct. at 862 . The Court emphasized the restaurant’s use of “an integral part” of a publicly owned and maintained building which was by statute dedicated to “public uses,” and the mutual benefits conferred upon both the restaurant and the parking authority by their association. The Court noted particularly that, to the extent that the restaurant’s discriminatory service policy contributed to its profits, that policy contributed also to “the financial success of a government agency.” Id., at 724 , 81 S.Ct. at 861 . The Court warned, however, that it did not intend “to fashion and apply a precise formula for recognition of state responsibility,” and that “only by sifting facts and weighing circumstances can the nonobvious involvement of the state in private conduct be attributed its true significance.” Id., at 722 , 81 S.Ct. at 860 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 538 F. Supp. 754 - Gerena v. Puerto Rico Legal Services, Inc.