Opinion ID: 198712
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Traditional Public Function.

Text: 16 Pointing out that LBC took over the task of operating the youth basketball program from the Town's Recreation Director, the appellant contends that LBC assumed a traditional public function. On the facts, this contention lacks force. The record establishes beyond peradventure that Psaledas never ran a youth basketball program in his capacity as Recreation Director. Indeed, private sponsorship of youth basketball existed in Londonderry well before LBC's formation. 17 More importantly, however, the appellant's construct misconstrues the law. The public function analysis is designed to flush out a State's attempt to evade itsresponsibilities by delegating them to private entities. See Barrios-Velazquez, 84 F.3d at 494. In order to prevail on such a theory, a plaintiff must show more than the mere performance of a public function by a private entity; she must show that the function is one exclusively reserved to the State. See id. at 493-94. Government customarily involves itself in many types of activities, but few of those activities come within the State's exclusive preserve. To date, the short list of activities that have been held to satisfy this demanding criterion includes the administration of elections, the operation of a company town, eminent domain, peremptory challenges in jury selection, and, in at least limited circumstances, the operation of a municipal park. United Auto Workers v. Gaston Festivals, Inc., 43 F.3d 902, 907 (4th Cir. 1995) (citations omitted). When a plaintiff ventures outside such narrow confines, she has an uphill climb. 18 The appellant cannot scale these heights. The case law makes pellucid that the administration of an amateur sports program lacks the element of exclusivity and therefore is not a traditional public function. See Tarkanian, 488 U.S. at 197 n.18 (discussing the NCAA's overriding function of fostering amateur athletics at the college level, and noting that while we have described that function as 'critical,' by no means is it a traditional, let alone an exclusive state function (citation omitted)); San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Comm., 483 U.S. 522, 545 (1987) (Neither the conduct nor the coordination of amateur sports has been a traditional governmental function.); Behagen v. Amateur Basketball Ass'n, 884 F.2d 524, 531 (10th Cir. 1989); McCormack v. National Collegiate Athletic Ass'n, 845 F.2d 1338, 1346 (5th Cir. 1988); Ponce v. Basketball Fed'n, 760 F.2d 375, 381 (1st Cir. 1985). 19 The fact that LBC's basketball program targets children rather than adults provides no succor to the appellant. In Rendell-Baker v. Kohn, 457 U.S. 830, 842 (1982), the Court held that the education of maladjusted high-school students was not an exclusive function of the State and therefore was not an inherently governmental function. If youngsters' education does not qualify under the Court's test, the coordination of a youth basketball league a fortiori falls outside the range of such functions. Accord Magill v. Avonworth Baseball Conf., 516 F.2d 1328, 1332 (3d Cir. 1975) (holding that the operation of a youth baseball league did not constitute private performance of a governmental function); cf. Fortin v. Darlington Little League, Inc., 514 F.2d 344, 347 (1st Cir. 1975) (finding state action but declining to hold that the Little League had assumed a governmental function). We therefore reject the appellant's attempt to ground state action in LBC's performance of a function that we conclude is not exclusively governmental. 20