Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Edwards (465 U.S. 870)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 21, 1984 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 465 U.S. 870 · 104 S. Ct. 1532
- Decided
- March 21, 1984
- Term
- October Term 1983
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Marshall
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court. This case raises an issue concerning this Court’s mandatory jurisdiction. Federal courts of appeals have jurisdiction over appeals from all final decisions of district courts, “except where a direct review may be had in the Supreme Court.” 28 U. S. C. § 1291. Section 1252 of Title 28 provides for such a direct appeal from a United States court’s judgment, in a civil proceeding to which the Government is a party, holding that an Act of Congress is unconstitutional. The issue before us is whether the Court of Appeals properly dismissed for lack of jurisdiction the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ appeal from a proceeding in which a federal statute was declared unconstitutional, but in which the Secretary challenged only the District Court’s remedy. I Respondent filed this suit against the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in October 1980. On behalf of a nationwide class of Social Security applicants and recipients, respondent challenged the constitutionality of § 211(a)(5)(A) of the Social Security Act, 64 Stat. 502, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 411(a)(5)(A), which established a gender-based presumption concerning the allocation of income from family businesses in community property States. In pretrial proceedings, the Secretary argued that…
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