# New Orleans Public Service, Inc. v. Council of City of New Orleans

> Supreme Court of the United States · June 19, 1989 · 491 U.S. 350

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431762

## Case

- **Full name:** NEW ORLEANS PUBLIC SERVICE, INC. v. COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS Et Al.
- **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States
- **Decided:** June 19, 1989
- **Citations:** 491 U.S. 350; 103 P.U.R.4th 49; 57 U.S.L.W. 4755; 109 S. Ct. 2506; 105 L. Ed. 2d 298; 1989 U.S. LEXIS 3043
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Brennan
- **Judges:** Scalia, Brennan, Rehnquist, Blackmun, Marshall
- **Cited by:** 1,668 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- **Yellow flag:** Reported abrogated in part, on other grounds by Quackenbush v. Allstate Insurance, 517 U.S. 706 (1996) — not on the Supreme Court's list.
- Negative treatments: 1
- Distinguished by: 2
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431762

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding Burford abstention inappropriate because the plaintiffs’ case did not “involve a The counter-argument is, of course, that even if the tariffing state-law claim, nor even an assertion that the federal claims requirement established in the February 25 order were struck d…
- explaining that the "proper characterization” of a proceeding "depends not upon the character of the body but upon the character of the proceedings,” and holding that "a judicial inquiry investigates, declares and enforces liabilities as they stand on present or past facts and…
- explaining that "[w]hile Burford is concerned with protecting complex state administrative processes from undue federal interference, it does not require abstention whenever there exists such a process, or even in all cases where there is a 'potential for conflict' with state …
- explaining “concern for comity and federalism has led us to expand the protection of Younger beyond state criminal prosecutions to civil enforcement proceedings, and even to civil proceedings involving certain orders that are uniquely in furtherance of the state courts’ abilit…

## Opinion text

Justice Brennan,
with whom Justice Marshall joins,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion. I continue to adhere to my view, however, that the abstention doctrine of Younger v. Hams, 401 U. S. 37 (1971), is in general inapplicable to civil proceedings. See Pennzoil Co. v. Texaco Inc., 481 U. S. 1, 19 (1987) (Brennan, J., concurring in judgment); Trainor v. Hernandez, 431 U. S. 434, 450 (1977) (Brennan, J., dissenting); Juidice v. Vail, 430 U. S. 327, 341 (1977) (Brennan, J., dissenting); Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U. S. 592, 613 (1975) (Brennan, J., dissenting).'

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431762. Public record. Not legal advice.