Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Mathews et al. (465 U.S. 728)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 5, 1984 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 465 U.S. 728 · 104 S. Ct. 1387
- Decided
- March 5, 1984
- Term
- October Term 1983
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Brennan
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Brennan delivered the opinion of the Court. Califano v. Goldfarb, 430 U. S. 199 (1977), held that a gender-based classification in the spousal-benefit provisions of the Social Security Act violated the right to the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. In this case, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama held that amendments to the Act, adopted in 1977 partly in response to our decision, unjustifiably revive the gender-based classification that was invalidated in Goldfarb and therefore also violate the Fifth Amendment. App. to Juris. Statement la-9a. The Secretary of Health and Human Services appealed directly to this Court. We noted probable jurisdiction under 28 U. S. C. § 1252, 460 U. S. 1036 (1983), and now reverse. I A The Social Security Act (Act) provides spousal benefits for the wives, husbands, widows, and widowers of retired and disabled wage earners. 42 U. S. C. § 402 (1976 ed. and Supp. V). Prior to December 1977, benefits were payable only to those husbands or widowers who could demonstrate dependency on their wage-earning wives for one-half of their support. Wives and widows, on the other hand, were entitled to spousal benefits without any such showing of dependency on their husbands. See former 42 U. S. C. §§ 402(b), (c)(1)(C), and (f)(1)(D). In March 1977, Califano v.…
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