In Flagg Brothers, Inc. v. Brooks (1978) 436 U.S. 149, the nation's highest court in an opinion authored by Mr. Justice Rehnquist, relied principally for its conclusion that no state action was involved on the theory that the settlement of disputes of debtors and creditors (via an involuntary lien sale) was not traditionally an exclusively public function. ( Id. at p. 161.) The dissent written by Mr. Justice Stevens disagreed. It termed the state's power to order a binding nonconsensual resolution of a conflict between a debtor and a creditor exactly the sort of power with which the federal constitutional due process clause was concerned. ( Id. at p. 176.)