West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42 (1988)

E403304

United States Supreme Court case United States Supreme Court decision

West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42 (1988), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that a private physician under contract to provide medical services to state prisoners acts under color of state law for purposes of liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

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All labels observed (1)

Label	Occurrences
West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42 (1988) canonical	2

Statements (48)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	United States Supreme Court case ⓘ United States Supreme Court decision ⓘ
areaOfLaw	civil rights law ⓘ constitutional law ⓘ
arguedDate	1987-10-05 ⓘ
citation	487 U.S. 42 ⓘ
constitutionalProvisionInvolved	Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution ⓘ Fourteenth Amendment ⓘ surface form: Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
court	Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ
decidedDate	1988-06-20 ⓘ
decisionDate	1988 ⓘ
decisionType	unanimous decision ⓘ
docketNumber	87-5096 ⓘ
factSummary	The case involved a North Carolina state prisoner who alleged inadequate medical treatment by an orthopedic surgeon under contract with the state. ⓘ The physician treated inmates at a state prison hospital on a part-time contractual basis. ⓘ
firstPage	42 ⓘ
holding	A private physician under contract with the state to provide medical services to inmates acts under color of state law for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1983. ⓘ
impact	clarified that private medical providers for prisons can be sued as state actors under § 1983 ⓘ influenced later litigation involving privatization of prison services ⓘ
joinedByInMajority	William H. Rehnquist ⓘ surface form: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist Anthony M. Kennedy ⓘ surface form: Justice Anthony M. Kennedy Antonin Scalia ⓘ surface form: Justice Antonin Scalia Byron R. White ⓘ surface form: Justice Byron R. White John Paul Stevens ⓘ surface form: Justice John Paul Stevens Sandra Day O’Connor ⓘ surface form: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Thurgood Marshall ⓘ surface form: Justice Thurgood Marshall William J. Brennan Jr. ⓘ surface form: Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
jurisdiction	federal question jurisdiction ⓘ
keyPrinciple	Contractual status as an independent contractor does not preclude a finding of action under color of state law. ⓘ Private individuals performing functions traditionally and exclusively reserved to the state may be considered state actors. ⓘ Providing medical care to incarcerated persons is a function traditionally within the exclusive prerogative of the state. ⓘ State responsibility for inmate medical care cannot be evaded by delegating that duty to private contractors. ⓘ
legalIssue	state action requirement under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ⓘ
legalProvisionInterpreted	42 U.S.C. § 1983 ⓘ
majorityOpinionBy	Harry A. Blackmun ⓘ surface form: Justice Harry A. Blackmun
officialCitationFormat	West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42 (1988) self-link ⓘ
petitioner	Kevin West ⓘ
priorCourt	United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ⓘ
priorCourtDisposition	judgment for defendant affirmed ⓘ
relatedDoctrine	deliberate indifference to serious medical needs ⓘ state action doctrine ⓘ under color of state law ⓘ
remedySought	damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ⓘ
reporter	United States Reports ⓘ
respondent	Samuel Atkins ⓘ
stateInvolved	North Carolina ⓘ
supremeCourtDisposition	reversed and remanded ⓘ
volume	487 ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.

Instruction

You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10.

# Requirements
- If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list.
- If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list.
- Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf".
- Do not get too wordy.
- Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.

Input

Subject: West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42 (1988)
Description of subject: West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42 (1988), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that a private physician under contract to provide medical services to state prisoners acts under color of state law for purposes of liability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

42 U.S.C. § 1983 → interpretedBy → West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42 (1988) ⓘ

West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42 (1988) → officialCitationFormat → West v. Atkins, 487 U.S. 42 (1988) self-link ⓘ