310
Thomas, J., dissenting
It is also obvious that the TSSAA is not an entity created and controlled by the government for the purpose of fulfilling a government objective, as was Amtrak in Lebron v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation, 513 U. S. 374, 394 (1995). See also Pennsylvania v. Board of Directors of City Trusts of Philadelphia, 353 U. S. 230 (1957) (per curiam) (holding that a state agency created under state law was a state actor). Indeed, no one claims that the State of Tennessee played any role in the creation of the TSSAA as a private corporation in 1925. The TSSAA was designed to fulfill an objective—the organization of interscholastic athletic tournaments—that the government had not contemplated, much less pursued. And although the board of control currently is composed of public school officials, and although public schools currently account for the majority of the TSSAA's membership, this is not required by the TSSAA's constitution.
In addition, the State of Tennessee has not "exercised coercive power or . . . provided such significant encouragement [to the TSSAA], either overt or covert," Blum, 457 U. S., at 1004, that the TSSAA's regulatory activities must in law be deemed to be those of the State. The State has not promulgated any regulations of interscholastic sports, and nothing in the record suggests that the State has encouraged or coerced the TSSAA in enforcing its recruiting rule. To be sure, public schools do provide a small portion of the TSSAA's funding through their membership dues, but no one argues that these dues are somehow conditioned on the TSSAA's enactment and enforcement of recruiting rules.5
5 The majority emphasizes that public schools joining the TSSAA "give up sources of their own income to their collective association" by allowing the TSSAA "to charge for admission to their games." Ante, at 299. However, this would be equally true whenever a State contracted with a private entity: The State presumably could provide the same service for profit, if it so chose. In Rendell-Baker v. Kohn, 457 U. S. 830 (1982), for example, the State could have created its own school for students with special needs and charged for admission. Or in Blum v. Yaretsky, 457
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