If it was ANY USUAL mall I'd be more inclined to believe that, BUT they are assuming the "regular state duties" in a lot of ways. Remember the cases with the privately owned towns? This is pretty much that. The place is HUGE, with full time residents living inside of it, STATE PAID police/post office/etc. It feels like a private town to me.
Let's not get lost in the weeds here.
There is NO WAY that the current Supreme Court is going to consider the Mall of America as a company town or state actor. Not even close. The company town cases are fairly old and obscure, and the level of control exerted by the parent corporation was far, far beyond anything that Mall of America is engaging in.
The mall is simply private property, open to the public for commercial retail purposes. Can you really imagine that there are five justices who will say "Yeah, we think that the mall is essentially a state actor even though it's private property, and BLM has the right to disrupt commerce." Who would be that fifth vote? Kennedy?
No, as Loki stated, this will end badly for the protestors.
Supreme Court? Maybe not. But you know there are a few steps inbetween right?
Wait. I just want to make sure I understand your position from a practice perspective.
You think that a trial court, and then a CoA, is more likely to follow a 1940-something case that is not on point, and represents the (arguably) largest expansion of the state-actor doctrine, and which has since *not* been followed by the lower courts in similar situations, over more recent Supreme Court precedent which is *directly* on point, on the subject of malls, and specifically states that they are not state actors? And they would do so in an environment which, overall, is incredibly hostile to *any* expansion of the state actor doctrine?
This is (roughly) analogous to someone, today, arguing that despite the caselaw, they believe that the Flast standing exception would likely be expanded to a different area of the law to allow taxpayer standing for any type of suit, despite the fact that Flast has been whittled away (see, inter alia, Valley Forge).
There is something, also, to be said for reliance issues; those states (California, and, I believe, maybe New Jersey?) that want to specifically enact laws regarding malls have done so. But private actors are not state actors for a reason. If the state wants to regulate a private actor, it can easily do so- but private actors are, by an large, not subject to the same rules as a state actor vis-a-vis the Constitution (with exceptions, such as the 13th Am.).