Smith v. Berryhill
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 28, 2019 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- May 28, 2019
- Term
- October Term 2018
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Sotomayor
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice SOTOMAYOR delivered the opinion of the Court. The Social Security Act allows for judicial review of "any final decision ... made after a hearing" by the Social Security Administration (SSA). 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). Petitioner Ricky Lee Smith was denied Social Security benefits after a hearing by an administrative law judge (ALJ) and later had his appeal from that denial dismissed as untimely by the SSA's Appeals Council-the agency's final decisionmaker. This case asks whether the Appeals Council's dismissal of Smith's claim is a "final decision ... made after a hearing" so as to allow judicial review under § 405(g). We hold that it is. I A Congress enacted the Social Security Act in 1935, responding to the crisis of the Great Depression. 49 Stat. 620; F. Bloch, Social Security Law and Practice 13 (2012). In its early days, the program was administered by a body called the Social Security Board; that role has since passed on to the Board's successor, the SSA. In 1939, Congress amended the Act, adding various provisions that-subject to changes not at issue here-continue to govern cases like this one. See Social Security Act Amendments of 1939, ch. 666, 53 Stat. 1360. First, Congress gave the agency "full power and authority to make rules and regulations and to establish procedures ... necessary or appropriate to carry out" the Act. § 405(a). Second, Congress directed the…
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