Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-534_19m2.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

6 

NORTH CAROLINA STATE BD. OF DENTAL
EXAMINERS v. FTC 
Opinion of the Court 

recognized  Congress’  purpose  to  respect  the  federal  bal­
ance  and  to  “embody  in  the  Sherman  Act  the  federalism
principle  that  the  States  possess a  significant  measure  of 
sovereignty  under  our  Constitution.”    Community  Com-
munications Co. v. Boulder, 455 U. S. 40, 53 (1982).  Since 
1943, the Court has reaffirmed the importance of Parker’s 
central holding.  See, e.g., Ticor, supra, at 632–637; Hoover 
v.  Ronwin,  466  U. S.  558,  568  (1984);  Lafayette  v.  Louisi-
ana Power & Light Co., 435 U. S. 389, 394–400 (1978). 

III 
In this case the Board argues its members were invested
by North Carolina with the power of the State and that, as 
a  result,  the  Board’s  actions  are  cloaked  with  Parker 
immunity.  This argument fails, however.  A nonsovereign 
actor  controlled  by  active  market  participants—such  as 
the Board—enjoys Parker immunity only if it satisfies two
requirements:  “first  that  ‘the  challenged  restraint  . . .  be
one  clearly  articulated  and  affirmatively  expressed  as
state  policy,’  and  second  that  ‘the  policy  .  .  .  be  actively 
supervised  by  the  State.’ ”    FTC  v.  Phoebe  Putney  Health 
System, Inc., 568 U. S. ___, ___ (2013) (slip op., at 7) (quot­
ing  California  Retail  Liquor  Dealers  Assn.  v.  Midcal  Alu-
minum,  Inc.,  445  U. S.  97,  105  (1980)).    The  parties  have
assumed  that  the  clear  articulation  requirement  is  satis­
fied, and we do the same.  While North Carolina prohibits 
the unauthorized practice of dentistry, however, its Act is
silent  on  whether  that  broad  prohibition  covers  teeth 
whitening.  Here,  the  Board  did  not  receive  active  super­
vision  by  the  State  when  it  interpreted  the  Act  as  ad­
dressing teeth whitening and when it enforced that policy 
by  issuing  cease-and-desist  letters  to  nondentist  teeth
whiteners. 

A 
Although state-action immunity exists to avoid conflicts