248
Kennedy, J., dissenting
of Congress' substantial power to enforce the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. Cf., e. g., City of Rome v. United States, 446 U. S. 156, 173-182 (1980). Nor does it present the question whether the rule of attribution we have adopted in the state-action cases would, of its own force and without statutory implementation, extend the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause to these appellants. The state-action doctrine and case authorities such as Smith v. Allwright, 321 U. S. 649 (1944), and Terry v. Adams, 345 U. S. 461 (1953), may be of considerable relevance to equal protection or other constitutional challenges still pending before the District Court, see ante, at 191-192 (opinion of Stevens, J.), but those matters need not be discussed here. It would be unwise to do so; for, with full recognition of the vital doctrine that Smith, Terry, and kindred cases elaborate when we confront discrimination in the participatory processes that are the foundation of a democratic society, we have been cautious to preserve the line separating state action from private behavior that is beyond the Constitution's own reach. " 'Careful adherence to the "state action" requirement preserves an area of individual freedom by limiting the reach of federal law' and avoids the imposition of responsibility on a State for conduct it could not control." National Collegiate Athletic Assn. v. Tarkanian, 488 U. S. 179, 191 (1988), quoting Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U. S. 922, 936-937 (1982).
It is "unnecessary to traverse that difficult terrain in the present case," Lebron v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation, 513 U. S. 374, 378 (1995), because § 5 of the Voting Rights Act does not reach all entities or individuals who might be considered the State for constitutional purposes. Congress was aware of the difference between the State as a political, governing body and other actors whose conduct might be subject to constitutional challenge or the congressional enforcement power, and intended § 5 to reach only the former. Justice Thomas explains why § 5, both by its
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