Cite as: 504 U. S. 621 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
tory programs. Our decision was grounded in principles of federalism. Id., at 350-352.
The principle of freedom of action for the States, adopted to foster and preserve the federal system, explains the later evolution and application of the Parker doctrine in our decisions in Midcal, supra, and Patrick v. Burget, 486 U. S. 94 (1988). In Midcal we invalidated a California statute forbidding licensees in the wine trade to sell below prices set by the producer. There we announced the two-part test applicable to instances where private parties participate in a price-fixing regime. "First, the challenged restraint must be one clearly articulated and affirmatively expressed as state policy; second, the policy must be actively supervised by the State itself." 445 U. S., at 105 (internal quotation marks omitted). Midcal confirms that while a State may not confer antitrust immunity on private persons by fiat, it may displace competition with active state supervision if the displacement is both intended by the State and implemented in its specific details. Actual state involvement, not deference to private price-fixing arrangements under the general auspices of state law, is the precondition for immunity from federal law. Immunity is conferred out of respect for ongoing regulation by the State, not out of respect for the economics of price restraint. In Midcal we found that the intent to restrain prices was expressed with sufficient precision so that the first part of the test was met, but that the absence of state participation in the mechanics of the price posting was so apparent that the requirement of active supervision had not been met. Ibid.
The rationale was further elaborated in Patrick v. Burget. In Patrick it had been alleged that private physicians participated in the State's peer review system in order to injure or destroy competition by denying hospital privileges to a physician who had begun a competing clinic. We referred to the purpose of preserving the State's own administrative
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