New Orleans Public Service Inc v. Council of City of New Orleans/Concurrence Blackmun

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 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.