Opinion ID: 160953
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Bribery, Conspiracy, and Lavish Entertainment

Text: 20 Trigen alleges OG&E used improper payments, undue influence, and lavish entertainment to gain business. Trigen does not spell out its legal argument here and cites to no legal authority, but we construe Trigen as arguing that OG&E's alleged bad acts somehow destroy OG&E's state action immunity. However, the Supreme Court has expressly rejected this notion, holding that there is no conspiracy or bribery exception to state action immunity. City of Columbia v. Omni Outdoor Adver., Inc., 499 U.S. 365, 378-79 (1991) (stating that Congress has passed other laws aimed at combating corruption in state and local governments, and that any action that qualifies as state action is ipso facto . . . exempt from the operation of the antitrust laws) (internal quotations and citation omitted, alteration in original). We can find no legal authority, and Trigen points us to none, that dictates that OG&E's alleged lavish entertainment of customers causes OG&E to forfeit state action immunity. Therefore, even if OG&E had committed these alleged bad acts, its state action immunity would remain intact. 21