Opinion ID: 535262
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lease Agreements with Airport Concessionaires

Text: 25 One component of the regulatory scheme about which Gannett complains is the Port Authority's lease agreements with the concessionaires serving Newark Airport. According to Gannett, these lease agreements permit the concessionaires [to] act as First Amendment gatekeepers at Newark Airport since no standards exist to guide the concessionaires' judgment save their own marketing objectives. Brief for Appellant at 39. Gannett concludes that, in order to protect newspapers against the potential for abuse, the Port Authority should impose narrow, objective, and definite standards guiding the exercise of [the concessionaires'] discretion. Id. at 44-45. 26 The obvious difficulty with this argument is that it fails to take into account settled principles of state action. Because the Constitution only regulates governmental behavior, an action taken by a private individual is immune from constitutional scrutiny unless that behavior may be fairly treated as that of the state itself. Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co., 419 U.S. 345, 95 S.Ct. 449, 42 L.Ed.2d 477 (1974); see also Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., Inc., 457 U.S. 922, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982); Burton v. Wilmington Parking Auth., 365 U.S. 715, 81 S.Ct. 856, 6 L.Ed.2d 45 (1961); Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501, 66 S.Ct. 276, 90 L.Ed. 265 (1946). In this case, there is no question that the concessionaires leasing space at Newark Airport are private entities pursuing private ends. The Airport's newsstands, moreover, are free to make decisions regarding the newspapers and periodicals they wish to distribute without interference from the government, since the Port Authority's Rules and Regulations do not encompass this aspect of the concessionaires' conduct. 27 Absent any explicit governmental involvement in the distribution decisions of these private newsstands, the actions taken by the concessionaires in this case may not fairly be attributed to the Port Authority. The record fails to indicate any tacit governmental involvement in the concessionaires' actions with respect to the distribution of newspapers. These concessionaires, moreover, do not perform the sort of public function that, under certain circumstances, may be enough to transform the behavior of private entities into that of the government. See Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co., 419 U.S. 345, 95 S.Ct. 449, 42 L.Ed.2d 477 (1974) (holding that termination of services by a privately owned utility company is private action); Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501, 66 S.Ct. 276, 90 L.Ed. 265 (1946) (prohibiting the imposition of criminal trespass penalties against a speaker exercising first amendment rights in a company town). Nor do we perceive any entanglement with a public entity such that the concessionaires' decisions may be attributed to the government. See Flagg Brothers, Inc. v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149, 98 S.Ct. 1729, 56 L.Ed.2d 185 (1978) (holding that the exercise of a statutory right to attach debtor's property does not involve state action). 28 The fact that the concessionaires lease their premises from a governmental entity also falls short of triggering state action. It is true, of course, that the Port Authority's act of signing a lease is, per se, governmental. However, it is well established that a licensing relationship is insufficient in itself to give rise to wholesale governmental responsibility for the actions taken by a private licensee or tenant. See Moose Lodge No. 107 v. Irvis, 407 U.S. 163, 92 S.Ct. 1965, 32 L.Ed.2d 627 (1972) (holding that the granting of a liquor license, in itself, is insufficient to make the licensee a state actor). In such circumstances, state action will be recognized only when there is a symbiotic relationship between the private and governmental entities, such that the public might reasonably conclude from that relationship that the government has lent its support to the private entity's actions. See Burton v. Wilmington Parking Auth., 365 U.S. 715, 81 S.Ct. 856, 6 L.Ed.2d 45 (1961) (holding that symbiotic relationship between private cafeteria and publicly owned parking lot is enough to give rise to state action). In this case, we fail to perceive any danger that the public might attribute the behavior of private newsstands to the Port Authority. We therefore conclude that the concessionaires are private actors for constitutional purposes. 29 In addition to these state action problems, Gannett's challenge to the Port Authority's leasing arrangement with its concessionaire raises far greater constitutional problems than it solves. In attacking the scope of discretion afforded to newsstands at Newark Airport, Gannett suggests that the Port Authority ought to impose regulations that would govern the concessionaires' decisions affecting the distribution of newspapers--in effect, that the Port Authority in this case should require airport concessionaires to carry USA Today. 30 However well-intentioned, Gannett's panacea would undoubtedly be more harmful than the disease it is intended to cure. Subjecting newsstands to regulations of this sort would unquestionably amount to state action, and would very probably run afoul of the very first amendment principles under which Gannett seeks relief. The first amendment prohibits the government from forcing individuals to endorse particular points of view against their will. See, e.g., Abood v. Detroit Board of Educ., 431 U.S. 209, 97 S.Ct. 1782, 52 L.Ed.2d 261 (1977) (holding that a public employees' union may not compel members to contribute dues for the purpose of endorsing an ideological message not relevant to the union's functions); Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705, 97 S.Ct. 1428, 51 L.Ed.2d 752 (1977) (prohibiting state from requiring citizens to display state slogan on their automobile license plates). To that end, the Supreme Court has rejected the suggestion that the first amendment creates a constitutional right of access to private means of mass media distribution. See Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Democratic Nat'l Comm., 412 U.S. 94, 93 S.Ct. 2080, 36 L.Ed.2d 772 (1973). We are mindful, therefore, of the serious constitutional problems that would arise were the Port Authority to entangle itself in the private concessionaires' decisions regarding the newspapers they wish to distribute at their private newsstands. Because of these problems, we must reject Gannett's challenge to the discretion afforded private concessionaires at Newark Airport under the terms of their leases with the Port Authority. 31