This requirement only applies when the law in question requires the government to have acted.
This state action requirement extends to a number of actions.
According to the Supreme Court in Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., Inc., 500 U.S. 614 (1991), "Although the conduct of private parties lies beyond the Constitution's scope in most instances, governmental authority may dominate an activity to such an extent that its participants must be deemed to act with the authority of the government and, as a result, be subject to constitutional constraints."
The restoration of voting rights to white southerners undermined efforts to preserve and protect the voting rights of the freedman by giving the people against it the power to vote or petition against it.
