Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Turner et al. (470 U.S. 184)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 27, 1985 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 470 U.S. 184 · 105 S. Ct. 1138
- Decided
- February 27, 1985
- Term
- October Term 1984
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Blackmun
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court. This litigation concerns the proper computation of benefits to working recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), provided pursuant to subch. IV, pt. A, of the Social Security Act of 1935 (Act), as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 601 et seq. Specifically, we must decide whether, in calculating a household’s need, the responsible state agency is to treat mandatory tax withholdings as a work expense encompassed within the flat-sum disregard of § 402(a)(8)(A)(ii) of the Act, 42 U. S. C. §602(a)(8)(A)(ii), or whether the agency is to deduct such sums in determining “income” under § 402(a)(7)(A) of the Act, 42 U. S. C. § 602(a)(7)(A). The latter interpretation, of course, would accrue to the benefit of the recipient. I Before 1981, § 402(a)(7) of the Act required the state agency responsible for calculating a family’s eligibility for AFDC benefits to “take into consideration any . . . income and resources of any child . . . claiming aid,” as well as any “expenses reasonably attributable to the earning of any such income.” See Pub. L. 87-543, § 106(b), 76 Stat. 188 (1962). The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 (OBRA), Pub. L. 97-35, 95 Stat. 357, however, effected amendments of § 402(a)(7). While preserving the language that instructs the State to consider a family’s income and resources, Congress, in §2302 of…
Excerpt of a 52,294-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.