Susan Rockwell v. Cape Cod Hospital

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that Massachusetts statute did not create a sufficiently close nexus between private hospital and the State to warrant labeling private actors state actors
• concluding that, in Massachusetts, “treatment of the mentally ill was almost exclusively private” during the Colonial era
• holding that private hospital and physicians who involuntarily committed plaintiff, under Massachusetts statute were not state actors, noting that state regulation, even if extensive, and receipt of federal funds do not establish state action
• finding that history of involuntary commitment in Massachusetts reveals it is not a public function
• finding that the history of involuntary commitment dating back to the Colonial 25 era supports the conclusion that the commitment of patients is not an “exclusive prerogative 26 of the state”
• noting that “government regulation, even extensive regulation, and the receipt of federal funds, such as Medicare, Medicaid and Hill-Burton funds, are insufficient to establish” that a private party acted under color of state law

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).