# Schlesinger v. Councilman

> Supreme Court of the United States · March 25, 1975 · 420 U.S. 738

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9426043

## Case

- **Full name:** SCHLESINGER, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, Et Al. v. COUNCILMAN
- **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States
- **Decided:** March 25, 1975
- **Citations:** 420 U.S. 738; 21 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1029; 95 S. Ct. 1300; 43 L. Ed. 2d 591; 1975 U.S. LEXIS 51
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Burger
- **Judges:** Burger, Brennan, Powell, Douglas, Marshall
- **Cited by:** 655 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9426043

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- finding that district courts should abstain, as a matter of comity, from habeas or other collateral review of decisions by the military court system where review within the military court system itself would be sufficient to grant the relief the petitioner requests
- holding that, just because there was 10 subject matter jurisdiction, it did not mean “that the District Court properly could reach the 11 merits” because “there remain[ed] the question of equitable jurisdiction”
- stating that the legislative history of Article 76, *134 UCMJ shows that Article III court collateral review was expected to be “the sole exception to the finality of actions within the military court system”
- explaining that the court’s review must be performed “in light of the deference that should be accorded the judgments of the carefully designed military justice system established by Congress”

## Opinion text

Mr. Chief Justice Burger,
concurring in the judgment.
I concur in the judgment because I believe that Art. 76 of the UCMJ applies only to postjudgment attacks upon the proceedings of courts-martial and that the District Court should have dismissed the complaint on the basis of Younger v. Harris, 401 U. S. 37 (1971).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9426043. Public record. Not legal advice.