P.R.B.A. Corp. v. HMS Host Toll Roads, Inc.

OPINION

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

This case requires us to determine whether a private company that operates service plazas on New Jersey highways acted “under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State,” 42 U.S.C. § 1983, when it removed brochures belonging to a “gentleman’s club” from the common areas of its service plazas. We hold that it did not. The absence of any direct involvement by the state authorities either in the decision to remove the brochures or in the general, day-to-day operations of the service plazas compels this conclusion. Accordingly, we will…