Jackson v. Metro. Edison Co.

From wikilawschool.net. Wiki Law School does not provide legal advice. For educational purposes only.
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
Jackson v. Metro. Edison Co.
Court U.S. Supreme Court
Citation 419 U.S. 345 (1974)
Date decided 1974

Facts

The respondent didn’t pay her electric bill, and the electric company shut off the electric.

Issues

Whether a person is entitled due process when dealing with private entities when the entities are monopolies or perform a function with much state regulation.

Holding

The mere fact that a business is subject to state regulation does not by itself convert its action into that of the State for purposes of the 14th amendment.

The state of Pennsylvania is not sufficiently connected with the respondent’s action in termination petitioner’s service so as to make respondent’s conduct in so doing attributable to the State for purposes of the 14th amendment.

Rule

The inquiry must be whether there is a sufficiently close nexus between the State and the challenged action of the regulated entity so that the action of the latter may be fairly treated as that of the State itself.