ALA Civil Procedure And Constitutional Law Practice Exam

The key idea is that the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment protect against state action, not private action. A private university—even one run by a religious organization, even if it’s state-accredited and receives state funds—is generally not a state actor. Constitutional speech rights bite when the government is the one restricting or compelling speech; private employers can set their own employment policies and discipline employees for what they publish or say. What matters is whether the government is so involved with the university that its conduct can be treated as the government’s action. Accreditation or funding alone doesn’t automatically make the university’s discharge a constitutional matter; there would need to be substantial government coercion, involvement, or entwinement in the decision. Since the scenario doesn’t show that level of state involvement, the discharge doesn’t implicate First or Fourteenth Amendment rights. If there were true state action, the analysis would be different and a constitutional remedy could exist; but as stated, the professor’s claim rests on private action, not government action.