# 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/9431764 ## 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 Blackmun - **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/9431764 ## 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 Blackmun, concurring in the judgment. I concur in the judgment in this case. I also agree with what I take to be the core of the majority’s reasoning: in the posture of this case, a legislative proceeding ended when the Council entered its ratemaking order; after that point, adjudication in the District Court would not have interfered with any ongoing proceeding, be it judicial, quasi-legislative, or legislative. Ante, at 372. I find, however, that the majority’s understanding of Burford abstention is much narrower than my own in respects not relevant to the disposition of this case, and that there is considerable tension between its discussion of the nature of the State’s interests in the Burford context and its discussion of the State’s interests in the Younger context. Compare ante, at 362-363, with ante, at 366-367. Furthermore, I am not entirely persuaded *375 that this Court’s decisions applying Younger abstention to administrative proceedings that are judicial in nature leave open the question whether abstention must continue through the judicial review process. Ante, at 369, and n. 4. In my view, the majority’s observations on these questions are not necessary to the result or to the legal standard the majority has adopted. --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431764. Public record. Not legal advice.