Department of the Navy v. Egan

Decided February 23, 1988. Harry Andrew Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 86-1552 · 484 U.S. 518 (1988) · Cited 752 times

Holding

In an appeal pursuant to 7513, the Board does not have authority to review the substance of an underlying security-clearance determination in the course of reviewing an adverse action.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–3.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Cafeteria & Restaurant Workers Union, Local 473 v. McElroy · 367 U.S. 886 (1961)
• Greene v. McElroy · 360 U.S. 474 (1959)
• Wolff v. McDonnell · 418 U.S. 539 (1974)
• Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner · 387 U.S. 136 (1967)
• Goldberg v. Kelly · 397 U.S. 254 (1970)
• Stanley v. Illinois · 405 U.S. 645 (1972)
• Perry v. Sindermann · 408 U.S. 593 (1972)
• United States v. Nixon · 418 U.S. 683 (1974)
• Chappell v. Wallace · 462 U.S. 296 (1983)
• Orloff v. Willoughby · 345 U.S. 83 (1953)
• Block v. Community Nutrition Institute · 467 U.S. 340 (1984)
• United States v. Reynolds · 345 U.S. 1 (1953)
• Schlesinger v. Councilman · 420 U.S. 738 (1975)
• Burns v. Wilson · 346 U.S. 137 (1953)
• United States v. Robel · 389 U.S. 258 (1967)
• Haig v. Agee · 453 U.S. 280 (1981)
• Gilligan v. Morgan · 413 U.S. 1 (1973)
• Central Intelligence Agency v. Sims · 471 U.S. 159 (1985)
• Snepp v. United States · 444 U.S. 507 (1980)
• Totten v. United States · 92 U.S. 105 (1876)
• Cole v. Young · 351 U.S. 536 (1956)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• United States v. Zubaydah · 595 U.S. 195 (2022)
• Ziglar v. Abbasi · 582 U.S. 120 (2017)
• Webster v. Doe · 486 U.S. 592 (1988)
• Franklin v. Massachusetts · 505 U.S. 788 (1992)
• Hamdi v. Rumsfeld · 542 U.S. 507 (2004)
• National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab · 489 U.S. 656 (1989)
• Christopher v. Harbury · 536 U.S. 403 (2002)
• Munaf v. Geren · 553 U.S. 674 (2008)
• Boumediene v. Bush · 553 U.S. 723 (2008)
• Chandler v. Miller · 520 U.S. 305 (1997)
• Hernández v. Mesa · 589 U.S. 93 (2020)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1988). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).