The U.S. Department of Justice\u00a0filed\u00a0Monday a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that Congress has the power to deny otherwise eligible U.S. citizens in the territories access to Supplemental Security Income benefits based solely on where they happen to live. This came after President Joe Biden\u00a0issued\u00a0an\u00a0unusual statement\u00a0that his own DOJ\u2019s position was \u201cinconsistent with my Administration\u2019s policies and values.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last September, the Trump DOJ\u00a0sought review\u00a0of\u00a0United States v. Vaello Madero, a landmark decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit that upheld a District Court ruling that the denial of SSI\u00a0benefits to residents\u00a0of Puerto Rico. In March, the Supreme Court granted review.<\/p>\n
While the DOJ brief defends the discriminatory federal law, it also recognizes that \u201cas a matter of policy, the Administration supports extending SSI benefits to Puerto Rico residents.\u201d Indeed, the brief recognizes that Jos\u00e9 Luis Vaello Madero\u2019s \u201ccircumstances forcefully illustrate the case for enhancing aid to needy individuals in Puerto Rico.\u201d But ultimately, DOJ\u2019s position is that \u201cCongress is fully empowered to extend SSI to Puerto Rico in light of the concerns respondent identifies, but its decision not to do so does not violate the Constitution under this court\u2019s precedents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Responding to DOJ\u2019s filing, Neil Weare, president and founder of Equally American, which advocates for equal rights for residents of U.S. territories, stated: \u201cThe SSI program is one of our nation\u2019s most successful social safety net programs, recognizing the inherent dignity of millions of the most vulnerable, low-income Americans who are aged, blind, or disabled by providing them with a basic income. However, while these critical benefits are taken for granted in most American communities, they are not available to otherwise eligible residents of most U.S. territories for no other reason than where they happen to live. This discrimination isn\u2019t just wrong, it\u2019s unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2012, Vaello Madero began receiving SSI disability benefits after he became afflicted with severe health issues while living in New York. The following year, he moved from New York to Puerto Rico to help care for his wife, who also had significant health concerns. Not realizing his change in address meant he was no longer eligible for SSI, he did not question when his benefits continued. In 2016, after Vaello Madero applied for retirement benefits, the Social Security Administration realized he now lived in Puerto Rico and ceased payments. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit invoking a criminal statute against Vaello Madero to recover the $28,081 in SSI benefits he had received while he was a resident of Puerto Rico.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the court appointed pro bono counsel, Vaello Madero argued that SSI discrimination against residents of U.S. territories violates the Constitution\u2019s guarantee of equal protection. The district court and a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit agreed, concluding that discrimination against residents of Puerto Rico with respect to the SSI program fails judicial review under any standard.\u00a0(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. Department of Justice\u00a0filed\u00a0Monday a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that Congress…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":331088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[293,922,139],"class_list":["post-345665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-doj","tag-ssi","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}