6 LINDKE v. FREED Opinion of the Court Corp. v. Halleck, 587 U. S. 802, 808 (2019) (“[T]he Free Speech Clause prohibits only governmental abridgment of speech,” not “private abridgment of speech”). In short, the state-action requirement is both well established and reinforced by multiple sources.1 In the run-of-the-mill case, state action is easy to spot. Courts do not ordinarily pause to consider whether §1983 applies to the actions of police officers, public schools, or prison officials. See, e.g., Graham v. Connor, 490 U. S. 386, 388 (1989) (police officers); Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U. S. 503, 504–505 (1969) (public schools); Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U. S. 97, 98 (1976) (prison officials). And, absent some very unusual facts, no one would credit a child’s assertion of free speech rights against a parent, or a plaintiff ’s complaint that a nosy neighbor unlawfully searched his garage. Sometimes, however, the line between private conduct and state action is difficult to draw. Griffin v. Maryland is a good example. 378 U. S. 130 (1964). There, we held that a security guard at a privately owned amusement park engaged in state action when he enforced the park’s policy of segregation against black protesters. Id., at 132–135. Though employed by the park, the guard had been “deputized as a sheriff of Montgomery County” and possessed “ ‘the same power and authority’ ” as any other deputy sheriff. Id., at 132, and n. 1. The State had therefore allowed its power to be exercised by someone in the private sector. And the source of the power, not the identity of the employer, controlled. By and large, our state-action precedents have grappled —————— 1 Because local governments are subdivisions of the State, actions taken under color of a local government’s law, custom, or usage count as “state” action for purposes of §1983. See Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U. S. 658, 690–691 (1978). And when a state or municipal employee violates a federal right while acting “under color of law,” he can be sued in an individual capacity, as Freed was here.