464 U.S. 879 | SCOTUS | 1983
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting in part.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) has taken the position that she may, at any time, terminate the payment of disability benefits to persons who have previously been found to be disabled and entitled to benefits under Titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act notwithstanding the complete absence of evidence that the recipient’s medical condition has improved. In maintaining this position, the Secretary refused to follow the settled law in the Ninth Circuit, which requires her to adduce some evidence of medical improvement before terminating disability benefits. See Patti v. Schweiker, 669 F. 2d 582 (1982); Finnegan v. Matthews, 641 F. 2d 1340 (1981). Nevertheless, for
Respondents filed a class action in the United States District Court for the Central District of California challenging the Secretary’s policy. On June 16, 1983, the District Court entered an injunction requiring the Secretary to comply with the law of the Ninth Circuit with respect to recipients of disability benefits who reside in that Circuit. The only portion of the District Court’s injunction presently at issue in this Court is ¶ 4(c), which applies to all persons whose disability benefits have been terminated since August 30, 1981 (or August 25, 1980, in the case of recipients who were “grandfathered” into the federal program from state disability programs). Paragraph 4(c) enjoins the Secretary to notify all such persons that they may reapply for benefits, and upon reapplication, to reinstate their benefits pending a termination hearing at which the Secretary must produce some evidence of medical improvement.
Today the Court declines to vacate the stay entered by Justice Rehnquist. Of course, in considering a motion of this kind, substantial deference must be paid to the judgment of the Circuit Justice. See Rosenberg v. United States, 346 U. S. 273, 286-287 (1953). The Circuit Justice’s decision should not be disturbed simply because the other Members of the Court would have declined to grant the stay as an original matter. Nonetheless, there are cases in which reexamination is proper, see id., at 287-288; I am persuaded that this is such a case.
In Justice Rehnquist’s view, the District Court’s injunction extended to persons over whom the District Court had no jurisdiction. That conclusion does not, however, justify a stay of the injunction to the extent that it granted relief to persons over whom the District Court does have jurisdiction. Moreover, the extent of the overbreadth is less than Justice Rehnquist assumed when he was persuaded to enter his stay.
“Any individual, after any final decision of the Secretary made after a hearing to which he was a party, irrespective of the amount in controversy, may obtain a review of such decision by a civil action commenced within sixty days after the mailing to him of notice of such decision or within such further time as the Secretary may allow.”
Under the statute, persons whose benefits have been terminated must seek judicial review of their termination within 60 days of a “final decision” of the Secretary. It is my understanding that this class action was filed on February 4, 1983, and that the class certified by the District Court includes persons who were entitled to seek judicial review of an adverse final decision by the Secretary more than 60 days before February 4, 1983 (December 6, 1982), but who failed to do so. As I understand ¶ 4(c) of the injunction entered by the District Court, it grants relief to class members over whom the District Court had no jurisdiction — specifically, to class members who had received “final decisions” from the Secretary more than 60 days prior to February 4, 1983, and who had not timely sought judicial review. To the extent that the stay entered by Justice Rehnquist applies to such persons, I agree that it was properly entered. These persons’ right to seek administrative or judicial review of their termination decisions had expired, and they could obtain benefits only by requests ing that the Secretary reopen their cases. However, the District Court had no jurisdiction to review the Secretary’s refusal to reopen these cases. Califano v. Sanders, 430 U. S. 99 (1977). Hence, the District Court had no jurisdiction over these persons and should not have granted them relief, see Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U. S. 682, 701, 704 (1979); Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U. S. 67, 71, n. 3 (1976).
I believe, however, that the motion to vacate the stay should be granted insofar as it applies to persons who sought judicial review of a termination of their benefits ordered by the Secretary on or after December 6, 1982, and persons whose right to administrative review of that termination had not expired before December 6, 1982. As to these persons, I believe both the waivable and nonwaivable elements of 42 U. S. C. §405(g) (1976 ed., Supp. V) were satisfied; hence the District Court had jurisdiction to enter injunctive relief.
Of course, in considering the motion to vacate the stay, it is also essential to balance the equities. However, as Justice Rehnquist recognized, the equities in this case strongly favor respondents, who are elderly, sick, or disabled persons to whom disability benefits may be crucial. Moreover, as Justice Rehnquist also recognized, this is a stay pending appeal to the Court of Appeals rather than a stay pending disposition of a petition for certiorari to this Court, and in such a case the granting of a stay by a Circuit Justice should be extremely rare and great deference should be shown to the judgment of the Court of Appeals. When these factors are also considered, I am compelled to conclude that the stay entered, by Justice Rehnquist should be modified.
In summary, I would grant the motion to vacate the stay insofar as it relates to those class members (a) whose benefits were terminated on or after December 6, 1982, as well as (b) those whose right to seek administrative review of the termination of their benefits had not expired as of December 6, 1982. To the extent that the Court declines to modify the stay in this fashion, I respectfully dissent.
Once the Secretary meets her burden of production, the burden of proof is on the recipient to prove he or she remains disabled.
With respect to the nonwaivable requirement, the Eldridge Court wrote: “Eldridge has fulfilled this crucial prerequisite. Through his answers to the state agency questionnaire, and his letter in response to the tentative determination that his disability had ceased, he specifically presented the claim that his benefits should not be terminated because he was still disabled. This claim was denied by the state agency and its decision was accepted by the [Secretary].” 424 U. S., at 329.
All the members of the respondent class answered a questionnaire substantially identical to the one Eldridge answered, indicating that they believed they were still disabled and entitled to benefits. Thus, each class member specifically presented a “claim.” The only difference between this case and Eldridge’s is that in response to the letter informing Eldridge that he would be terminated and requesting any additional evidence Eldridge might choose to submit, Eldridge wrote a letter. Some unidentified percentage of the respondent class presumably also wrote letters similar to this one, and in any event the Secretary does not rely on the absence of a letter to distinguish this case from Eldridge. Moreover, Eldridge’s letter hardly added to the “claim” he had already presented. In fact the letter did little more than state that
“It is unrealistic to expect that the Secretary would consider substantial changes in the current administrative review system at the behest of a single aid recipient... in an adjudicatory context.” 424 U. S., at 330.
It is not clear that the Secretary disagrees with my view. In her memorandum opposing respondents’ application to vacate the stay, she accepts the propriety of the District Court’s injunction as to persons that have exhausted their administrative remedies within 60 days of the filing of this action, and argues, correctly in my view, that the stay was proper as to persons whose
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
Before the Court is an emergency motion to vacate a stay granted by Justice Rehnquist pending appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 468 U. S. 1328 (1983). In my view, the merits of the underlying jurisdictional issues are far from certain, while the equities clearly favor the class
The stay is specifically directed at ¶4(0 of a preliminary injunction issued by the District Court, which would have required that the Secretary reinstate the disability benefits of any applicant who requests such reinstatement in response to a notice already distributed by the Secretary. The stayed portions of the injunction also would have allowed the Secretary to terminate these benefits, after subsequent hearings, but only if the Secretary properly applied prior decisions of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit when conducting those hearings. See Patti v. Schweiker, 669 F. 2d 582 (1982), and Finnegan v. Matthews, 641 F. 2d 1340 (1981) (in hearings to terminate disability benefits on the ground that the recipient is no longer disabled, the Secretary has burden of producing evidence of an improvement in medical condition). Thus, the question presented by the motion to vacate Justice Rehnquist’s stay is whether the payment of interim benefits to approximately 30,000 disabled individuals whose Social Security benefits have been terminated by the Secretary should be continued pending final decision on the merits by the Court of Appeals.
The standard traditionally applied by a Circuit Justice when considering a stay application is whether there is a reasonable probability that four Justices would vote to grant certiorari, whether there is a fair prospect that a majority of the Court would conclude that the decision below was erroneous, and whether a balancing of the equities suggests that a stay should or should not be granted. See Gregory-Portland Independent School District v. United States, 448 U. S. 1342 (1980) (Rehnquist, J., in chambers); Rostker v. Goldberg, 448 U. S. 1306, 1308 (1980) (Brennan, J., in chambers). Included within this last criterion, of course, is consideration of whether the applicant has demonstrated that irreparable harm is likely to result from the denial of the stay. Moreover, given the respect that is accorded interlocutory decisions of the lower federal courts, a stay application to a Circuit Justice on a matter still pending before a court of appeals, and on which the lower courts have already denied an interim stay, should be granted only in the most extraordinary cases. See O’Rourke v. Levine, 80 S. Ct. 623, 624, 4 L. Ed. 2d 615, 616 (1960) (Harlan, J., in chambers).
For purposes of the present motion, I accept Justice Rehnquist’s conclusion that there is a reasonable probability that issues relating to the proper scope of the injunction issued by the District Court would garner enough votes for plenary consideration by the Court. I do not agree, however, that there is a fair prospect of success on the merits of these claims such that the Court ultimately would vacate or substantially amend the injunction issued by the District Court. When refusing to issue a stay pending appeal, the Court of Appeals filed a lengthy opinion clearly explaining why the beneficiaries in this case satisfied the jurisdictional requirements of 42 U. S. C. §§ 405(g), 405(h) (1976 ed. and Supp. V). 713 F. 2d 1432 (1983). Specifically, the court concluded (1) that termination of benefits by the Secretary satisfies the nonwaivable requirement that recipients first present a claim to the Secretary, see, e. g., Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U. S. 319, 328-330 (1976); Wilson v. Edelman, 542 F. 2d 1260, 1270-1271 (CA7 1976); (2) that the waivable requirement of a final decision by the Secretary has been met because regulations made exhaustion of administrative remedies futile or, alternatively, because exhaustion of the recipients’ constitutional claim is not required, see, e. g., Mathews v. Diaz, 426 U. S. 67, 75-77 (1976); and (3) that the requirement that appeals be filed within 60 days of the Secretary’s decision has been waived by the Secretary due to her failure to raise the issue before the District Court. Although after plenary consideration I might agree with much of Justice Stevens’ analysis, I do not believe it is necessary at this time to provide further support for the conclusions reached by the Court of Appeals. Suffice it to say that, largely for the reasons stated by that court’s opinion, and for the reasons specified by the large body of case law to which that opinion referred, I am
Nor does the alleged judicial interference in the administrative process, which Justice Rehnquist’s opinion emphasized, add to the likely success of the Secretary’s appeal. In the situation presented by this motion, it is clear to me that it is the Secretary who has not paid due respect to a coordinate branch of Government by expressly refusing to implement the binding decisions of the Ninth Circuit. This is, indeed, the essence of the recipients’ constitutional allegation of nonacquiescence on the part of the Secretary.
At most, therefore, the likelihood of success on the merits is very much in doubt. Therefore, when considering whether or not to grant a stay pending appeal, this factor cannot by itself dictate the result. Rather, it becomes necessary to balance the equities; and, in my view, the overwhelming evidence of irreparable harm that accompanies any termination of disability benefits should be the determinative factor in this emergency application.
As noted, on this consideration Justice Rehnquist accepted the lower courts’ assessment of the comparative harms. I agree. Indeed, as the courts below correctly concluded, termination of the benefits in this case has caused “deprivation of fife’s necessities, further illness, or even death from the very disabilities that the Secretary deemed [the class members] not to have.” Any financial or administrative inconvenience suffered by the Secretary cannot outweigh, or even approach, the human suffering that has been imposed on those disabled recipients of Social Security benefits who have been wrongfully terminated. And as the courts below noted, the potential payment of retroactive benefits after final decision in this case will do little to compensate the recipients for their current deprivations.
In sum, there is little question in my mind that the extraordinary circumstances necessary to stay the decision of the lower
Lead Opinion
D. C. C. D. Cal. Motion of respondents to vacate the stay entered by Justice Rehnquist on September 9, 1983 [463 U. S. 1328], denied.