Cite as: 531 U. S. 288 (2001)
Thomas, J., dissenting
City Trusts, we did not consider entwinement when we addressed the question whether an agency established by state law was a state actor. See 353 U. S., at 231. In that case, the Pennsylvania Legislature passed a law creating a board of directors to operate a racially segregated school for orphans. Ibid. Without mentioning "entwinement," we held that, because the board was a state agency, its actions were attributable to the State. Ibid.
The majority's third example, Evans v. Newton, 382 U. S. 296 (1966), lends no more support to an "entwinement" theory than do Lebron and City Trusts. Although Evans at least uses the word "entwined," 382 U. S., at 299 ("Conduct that is formally 'private' may become so entwined with governmental policies or so impregnated with a governmental character as to become subject to the constitutional limitations placed upon state action"), we did not discuss entwinement as a distinct concept, let alone one sufficient to transform a private entity into a state actor when traditional theories of state action do not. On the contrary, our analysis rested on the recognition that the subject of the dispute, a park, served a "public function," much like a fire department or a police department. Id., at 302. A park, we noted, is a "public facility" that "serves the community." Id., at 301- 302. Even if the city severed all ties to the park and placed its operation in private hands, the park still would be "municipal in nature," analogous to other public facilities that have given rise to a finding of state action: the streets of a company town in Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U. S. 501 (1946), the elective process in Terry v. Adams, 345 U. S. 461 (1953), and the transit system in Public Util. Comm'n of D. C. v. Pollak, 343 U. S. 451 (1952). 382 U. S., at 301-302. Because the park served public functions, the private trustees operating the park were considered to be state actors.6
6 We have used the word "entwined" in another case, Gilmore v. Montgomery, 417 U. S. 556, 565 (1974), which the majority does not cite. In Gilmore, we held that a city could not grant exclusive use of public facili-
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