Suppose a privately owned restaurant refuses service because of race without government participation. The restaurant's choice is not itself a denial of equal protection by the state, although the Civil Rights Act may prohibit the conduct. If a court enforces a racially restrictive property agreement, the judicial enforcement supplies government action. Likewise, a public university's admissions decision is state action, while a private university does not become governmental merely by receiving ordinary public funds. A common mistake is to assume that harmful private discrimination is therefore lawful whenever the Constitution does not reach it. Statutes may regulate covered private employers, businesses, housing providers, and recipients of federal funds under authority distinct from the Fourteenth Amendment. In the equal-protection sequence, identify who made and enforced the classification first. Then choose between a constitutional claim requiring state action and a statutory claim whose coverage may extend to private conduct.

Video lesson: Equal Protection: Crash Course Government and Politics #29