Single Moms, Inc. v. Montana Power Co.

OPINION

GOULD, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiffs, a group of single Montana mothers, appeal from the district court’s dismissal of their 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claims against the defendant Montana Power Company (MPC), an electric and natural gas utility company. The plaintiffs claim that MPC violated their constitutional rights when MPC hired lobbyists to influence the Montana legislature to enact legislation to deregulate the Montana energy markets. Because MPC’s lobbying efforts were not “state action” implicating the single mothers’ constitutional rights, and because we reject the plaintiffs’ other…