Federal action / Fifth Amendment claim (outside § 1983 state-law scope)

OR · 42usc1983:x-federal-action

Section 1983 applies only to action under color of State, Territorial, or D.C. law; purely federal action requires a Bivens or Fifth Amendment theory with federal governmental participation.

Exact element source

of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia

Source: docroot/ir/usc/title42.jsonl#title42_sec1983; Unicode character offsets [133:186] (end exclusive); SHA-256 88fe01322b9d94860a669ec452f558146e2745845070bc43583671ce12acb2bb.

Routes and case patterns

Curated routes and observed case patterns
Route	Definition	Merits instance blocks	Distinct merits cases	Examples (up to 3 cases per count group)
_whole accepted; provisional (1 case)	The element is decided as a whole: the reasoning turns on no narrower doctrinal sub-question that distinguishes it from any other application of this element.	0 Satisfied 0; not satisfied 0; excluded context 1	0	Used only in non-merits blocks (1). Excluded context examples: Thompson v. Community Action of Greater Wilmington, Inc. — 567 F. Supp. 1159 (1983) · United States District Court for the District of Delaware · 1983 — not · no-evidence (42usc1983: author: Fable · historical QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/cases-QA2.md) · changed after review; current content not independently reviewed) · background/merits · not counted Pattern: no-federal-instrumentality/federal-funding-and-regulation-only

How courts decided this element

Annotation blocks, including explicitly excluded context
Case	Element	Holding and scope	Pattern	Exact source quotations
Thompson v. Community Action of Greater Wilmington, Inc. — 567 F. Supp. 1159 (1983) · United States District Court for the District of Delaware · 1983 — not · no-evidence (42usc1983: author: Fable · historical QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/cases-QA2.md) · changed after review; current content not independently reviewed)	Federal action / Fifth Amendment claim (outside § 1983 state-law scope)	not Excluded from merits counts background / merits basis: no-evidence; party: CAGW; count: Fifth Amendment claim (not a 1983 claim); theory: federal instrumentality; subject: party=CAGW; count=Fifth Amendment claim (not a 1983 claim); theory=federal instrumentality Not a 1983 theory at all (1983 reaches only state law); a direct Fifth Amendment claim pleaded alongside. Recorded because the court decides it by transplanting the same state-action cases.	no-federal-instrumentality/federal-funding-and-regulation-only	Here plaintiff has made no showing of federal involvement in CAGW other than general regulation and funding, as such, CAGW is not a federal instrumentality and the decision to terminate may not be challenged under the Fifth Amendment. Source: `docroot/ir/caselaw/f_supp_567.jsonl#/f-supp/567/1159-01`; Unicode character offsets [26985:27219] (end exclusive); SHA-256 `17afc927bb04fdade70d9f70b64a9bd28fc07264d61e2116bf4fdfdf73290a97`. Evidence kind: fact; polarity: cuts-against; absent flag: 1; quoted-rule flag: 0 (1 = tagged; 0 = not tagged) Absent some “other factors” indicating federal governmental participation in CAGW’s actual operations, there is no federal action. Source: `docroot/ir/caselaw/f_supp_567.jsonl#/f-supp/567/1159-01`; Unicode character offsets [26283:26413] (end exclusive); SHA-256 `17afc927bb04fdade70d9f70b64a9bd28fc07264d61e2116bf4fdfdf73290a97`. Evidence kind: rule; polarity: not recorded; absent flag: 0; quoted-rule flag: 0 (1 = tagged; 0 = not tagged) The Court holds that CAGW was engaged neither in state nor federal action when it terminated Thompson. Source: `docroot/ir/caselaw/f_supp_567.jsonl#/f-supp/567/1159-01`; Unicode character offsets [28747:28849] (end exclusive); SHA-256 `17afc927bb04fdade70d9f70b64a9bd28fc07264d61e2116bf4fdfdf73290a97`. Evidence kind: held; polarity: not recorded; absent flag: 0; quoted-rule flag: 0 (1 = tagged; 0 = not tagged)

Court interpretations

interpretation

Absent some “other factors” indicating federal governmental participation in CAGW’s actual operations, there is no federal action.

Thompson v. Community Action of Greater Wilmington, Inc. — 567 F. Supp. 1159 (1983) · United States District Court for the District of Delaware · 1983 (42usc1983: author: Fable · historical QA: PASS (QA2, neov2/qa/cases-QA2.md) · changed after review; current content not independently reviewed)

Absent some “other factors” indicating federal governmental participation in CAGW’s actual operations, there is no federal action.

Source: docroot/ir/caselaw/f_supp_567.jsonl#/f-supp/567/1159-01; Unicode character offsets [26283:26413] (end exclusive); SHA-256 17afc927bb04fdade70d9f70b64a9bd28fc07264d61e2116bf4fdfdf73290a97.

Section 1983 applies only to action under color of State, Territorial, or D.C. law; purely federal action requires a Bivens or Fifth Amendment theory with federal governmental participation.