The federal appeals court made the ruling while dismissing a lawsuit filed by a group of snowboarders against Alta Ski Area outside Salt Lake City Wasatch Equality and four snowboarders (collectively, Wasatch) brought suit challenging a snowboard ban at Alta Ski Area in Utah.

In its complaint, Wasatch alleged the ban unconstitutionally discriminates against snowboarders and denies them equal protection of the law in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Recognizing that private action won’t sustain a civil rights complaint, Wasatch further alleged the ban constitutes “state action” because Alta operates its ski resort on federal land via a permit issued by the United States Forest Service—a permit that requires the Forest Service to annually review and approve Alta’s site management plan.

The district court disagreed, and dismissed this case for failure to identify a state action. The appeals court concluded: "Even if we grant all reasonable inferences in Wasatch’s favor, the pleaded facts at best establish that each year the Forest Service—with knowledge of the 15 snowboard ban—reviews and approves Alta’s site plan and receives from Alta a usage fee. This isn’t enough to establish state action for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Blum, 457 U.S. at 1004-05. Because Wasatch’s complaint doesn’t plausibly establish state action, we affirm the district court’s Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal. And because this conclusion controls all issues on appeal, we decline to address Wasatch’s challenges to the district court’s alternative rulings." Judgement here