Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck (17-1702)
argument 17-1702Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck
Supreme Court of the United States
1h 0m
6 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 7 days ago
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What is the Supreme Court’s state‑action test and why does it matter in Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck?
We'll hear argument this morning in Case 17-1702, the Manhattan Community Access Corporation v. Halleck. Mr. DeLue.
Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court, careful adherence to this Court's state action cases is necessary in order to preserve the lines between government action and private conduct. The challenged conduct, the purpose of the test, is to determine whether private action falls into the very rare exception of conduct that is fairly attributable to the state. Now, M&N is not a state actor under any of this Court's state action tests, and its conduct is therefore not fairly attributable to the state. M&N is a private nonprofit company. Its board is not controlled by the City of New York. The challenged conduct here was not compelled or coerced by the City of New York. There are no allegations that M&N acted jointly with the City of New York with regard to the challenged conduct.
And M&N does not perform a function that has traditionally and exclusively been carried out by the City of New York.
But MNN was engaged by the city to administer a scheme that was determined by state and city law, that is, to afford access on a first-come, first-served basis, giving MNN no independent judgment about what will err or when it will err. So it seems that MNN is an administrator of a city-state policy, this first come, first serve. And unlike other arrangements, it has no independent decision-making authority.
Respectfully, Justice Ginsburg, that's not quite correct. The grant agreement under which M&N operates, it's a grant agreement between the cable operator, which was originally Time Warner and is now Charter. That agreement actually does grant us the ability to curate content and It also grants us the ability to create our own content. So the distinction that my friend has made about putting M&N on one side of the spectrum as a party that has no discretion and other community access organizations, on the other hand, that do exercise discretion is not correct. I'm
sorry. It just means it's a mixed actor, meaning you can – it has its own speech. Government often has its own speech. so that it can create speech I don't think means anything. Similarly, time-place regulations, that anybody can do that, or whether it's the government or a private actor with respect to property. So the question, I think, is does it have discretion with respect to the content and its viewpoint neutrality on what the state is controlling, which is the placement rights on these cable lines.
Well, so the answer to that is that M&N does have discretion on the placement rights on — which are not placement rights that the City has, but placement rights that, through the grant agreement, are directly to M&N. And M&N does
have the power to — Only because it's the agent directly of the State. The State has the relationship with Time Warner and tells them that Time Warner must deal with M&N.
Well, that's not quite true, Justice Sotomayor. The agreement between Time Warner, the cable operator, and M&N is an independent agreement that is negotiated between those two parties. The city is not a party to that grant agreement. That grant agreement in turn gets approved by the Public Service Commission in New York. So the grant agreement gives us much broader rights to curate content, to decide to put shows together on one of our channels or a different channel. So the scheduling is not purely mechanical. It's not as if we take one videotape or CD from the street and put it in the machine and then put the next one in. Are
these the facts that you've been talking about in terms of your — did you curate the content? Are they disputed in the case? Yes.
The
case, as you point out, comes before us on the pleadings.
Well, again, these issues were not on the pleadings. These issues were not raised on the pleadings. The grant agreement, which was introduced by respondents, makes clear that we have that right to curate. In respondents' brief to the Court, they said that we did not have that right, that we were bound solely by the first come, first served,
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the Supreme Court’s state‑action test and why does it matter in Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck?
0:00–8:13
2
How does the Court determine whether Manhattan Neighborhood Network (M&N) is a state actor or a private nonprofit?
8:13–17:03
3
What role does the grant agreement with the cable operator play in M&N’s discretion over programming?
17:03–22:36
4
How is the composition of M&N’s board—government‑appointed versus community members—relevant to state‑action analysis?
22:36–30:12
5
Does the “first‑come, first‑served” policy limit M&N’s editorial discretion, and how does that affect viewpoint neutrality?
30:12–38:42
6
Is the public‑access channel a designated public forum, a limited forum, or a private forum under First Amendment jurisprudence?
38:42–46:45
7
What property interests does the City of New York retain in the public‑access channels, and how do they arise from the franchise agreement?
46:45–53:04
8
What remedies are available—state court, PSC, or federal § 1983—for alleged violations of the first‑come, first‑served rule?
53:04–1:00:25