This chapter deals with three separate but related issues concerning the nature and reach of constitutional rights. One involves the applicability of the Constitution: Against whom does the Constitution create rights? Another has to do with the character of the rights that the Constitution creates. Nearly all are rights to be free from one or another kind of hostile governmental action. Few are rights to affirmative governmental assistance. Why? The final topic involves the scope of Congress's power to “enforce” constitutional guarantees. In enforcing the Constitution, to what extent, if any, does Congress share in the power to determine the Constitution's meaning?

State Action Doctrine

A few years ago, a major league baseball pitcher named John Rocker gave a magazine interview in which he denounced New York City, the New York City subways, and gays. He mocked foreigners and referred to a Latino teammate as “a fat monkey.” Rocker's comments disturbed a lot of people, including officials of Major League Baseball, a private, for-profit organization of private, for-profit baseball teams.