Cite as: 504 U. S. 621 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
vertence; it cannot alone ensure, as required by our precedents, that particular anticompetitive conduct has been approved by the State. It seems plain, moreover, in light of the amici curiae brief to which we have referred, that sole reliance on the requirement of clear articulation will not allow the regulatory flexibility that these States deem necessary. For States whose object it is to benefit their citizens through regulation, a broad doctrine of state-action immunity may serve as nothing more than an attractive nuisance in the economic sphere. To oppose these pressures, sole reliance on the requirement of clear articulation could become a rather meaningless formal constraint.
III
In the case before us, the Court of Appeals relied upon a formulation of the active supervision requirement articulated by the First Circuit:
" 'Where . . . the state's program is in place, is staffed and funded, grants to the state officials ample power and the duty to regulate pursuant to declared standards of state policy, is enforceable in the state's courts, and demonstrates some basic level of activity directed towards seeing that the private actors carry out the state's policy and not simply their own policy, more need not be established.' " 922 F. 2d, at 1136, quoting New England Motor Rate Bureau, Inc. v. FTC, 908 F. 2d, at 1071.
Based on this standard, the Third Circuit ruled that the active supervision requirement was met in all four States, and held that the respondents' conduct was entitled to state-action immunity from antitrust liability. 922 F. 2d, at 1140.
While in theory the standard articulated by the First Circuit might be applied in a manner consistent with our precedents, it seems to us insufficient to establish the requisite level of active supervision. The criteria set forth by the First Circuit may have some relevance as the beginning
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