The Purpose(s) of Education, Public & Private -Reply

[Mark Rahdert]

At 04:34 PM 8/20/97 -0500, Mark Tushnet wrote:
>This is straying into off-list subjects, but,
>taking off from the questions about converting VMI
>into a private institution:  The city of Las Vegas
>has created a downtown pedestrian mall, which is
>leased to an operating company that has
>substantial authority to develop rules regarding
>the use of the space, including rules about speech
>activities like distributing literature.  The idea
>is to revitalize the downtown area by attracting
>tourists and generating more tax reneveue.
>
>Suppose that, instead of leasing the mall, the
>city sold it to the operating company.  Could the
>operating company act like Lloyd Corp. and bar all
>speech activities? Remember, this is downtown Las
>Vegas.  Would it be different if the city sold
>public property located on the outskirts of town?
>
>When I gave a variant of this problem as an exam
>question, my students divided on whether the lease
>arrangement meant that the operating company was a
>"state actor" when it banned distribution of
>political literature from tables but not by hand.
>
>Mark Tushnet
>Georgetown University Law Center
>600 New Jersey Ave. NW
>Washington, DC  20001
>
>202-662-9106
>   (fax) 202-662-9497
>tushnet at law.georgetown.edu
>

        We could bring this into the list by imagining that the city sold
the mall either for the purpose of permitting religious activities (e.g.,
the erection of a religiously focused creche display at Christmas or a cross
at Easter, or the like) that would be impermissible if done by the city, or
for the purpose of excluding religious activities (handing out prosletyzing
religious leaflets, or the like) that the state would be required to allow.

Mark Rahdert
Temple University School of Law