Goldberg v. Kelly
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''Goldberg v. Kelly'', 397 U.S. 254 (1970), is a case in which the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
ruled that the
Due Process Clause In United States constitutional law, a Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibits arbitrary deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the government except as ...
of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Often considered as one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses citizenship rights and ...
requires an
evidentiary hearing Within some criminal justice systems, a preliminary hearing, preliminary examination, preliminary inquiry, evidentiary hearing or probable cause hearing is a proceeding, after a criminal complaint has been filed by the prosecutor, to determine wh ...
before a recipient of certain government
welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
benefits can be deprived of such benefits. The individual losing benefits is entitled to an oral hearing before an impartial decision-maker as well as the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses and the right to a written statement setting out the evidence relied upon and the legal basis for the decision. There is no right to a formal trial. The case was decided 5–3. (There was a vacancy on the Court because of the resignation of
Abe Fortas Abraham Fortas (June 19, 1910 – April 5, 1982) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1965 to 1969. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Fortas graduated from Rhod ...
.)


Issues

# Does the
Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Often considered as one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses citizenship rights and e ...
demand a hearing before the termination of statutorily defined welfare benefits? # Does a pre-termination "informal hearing" in a welfare case satisfy the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment? # Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a full "evidentiary hearing" prior to termination of welfare benefits? # Does the welfare recipient have the right to counsel or an attorney at an evidentiary hearing? # To what extent does the welfare administrative decision maker need to be impartial?


Holdings

1. Welfare benefits are a matter of statutory entitlement for persons qualified to receive them and so procedural due process is applicable to their termination. 2. The interest of the eligible recipient in the uninterrupted receipt of public assistance, which provides him with essential food, clothing, housing, and medical care and the State's interest that his payments not be erroneously terminated clearly outweigh the State's competing concern to prevent any increase in its fiscal and administrative burdens. 3. A pre-termination evidentiary hearing is necessary to provide the welfare recipient with procedural due process. (a) Such hearing need not take the form of a judicial or quasi-judicial trial, but the recipient must be provided with timely and adequate notice detailing the reasons for termination and an effective opportunity to defend by confronting adverse witnesses and by presenting his own arguments and evidence orally before the decision maker. (b) Counsel need not be furnished at the pre-termination hearing, but the recipient must be allowed to retain an attorney. (c) A decision must rest "solely on the legal rules and evidence adduced at the hearing." (d) The decision maker need not file a full opinion or make formal findings of fact or conclusions of law but should state the reasons for his determination and indicate the evidence he relied on.P. 271 (e) The decision maker must be impartial, and although prior involvement in some aspects of a case will not necessarily bar a welfare official from acting as decision maker, he should not have participated in making the determination under review.


Discussion

The ''Goldberg'' decision set the parameters for procedural
due process Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...
when dealing with the deprivation of a government benefit or entitlement. The Court held that a person has a
property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
interest in certain government entitlements, which require notice and a hearing before a governmental entity (either state or federal) takes them away. Government-provided entitlements from the modern
welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...
increased substantially in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
during the 20th century. The ''Goldberg'' court decided that such entitlements (like welfare payments, government
pensions A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
, professional
licenses A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
), are a form of "new property" that require pre-deprivation procedural protection and so did away with the traditional distinction between rights and privileges. The majority stated that welfare benefits are property and articulated the general proposition that welfare enjoys the same legal protection as other property. Justice Brennan noted that welfare benefits are "a matter of statutory entitlement for persons qualified to receive them" and added that "it may be realistic today to regard welfare entitlements as more like 'property' than a 'gratuity.'" Here Brennan cited Charles A. Reich's article "The New Property". The prohibition against deprivation of property without due process of law in the Fourteenth Amendment therefore applies to benefits termination. This specific case dealt with 20 individuals who had been suspected of
welfare fraud Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
by
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
officials and were then denied municipal benefits. The opinion of the Court was delivered by Justice William Brennan, while dissenting opinions were filed by Justices
Hugo Black Hugo Lafayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. A ...
and
Potter Stewart Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915 – December 7, 1985) was an American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981. During his tenure, he made major contributions to, among other areas, ...
and Chief Justice
Warren Burger Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger graduated from the St. Paul Colleg ...
. Brennan said at his retirement that he considered it the most important case he had ever decided; conservative columnist
David Frum David Jeffrey Frum (; born June 30, 1960) is a Canadian-American political commentator and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, who is currently a senior editor at ''The Atlantic'' as well as an MSNBC contributor. In 2003, Frum au ...
once claimed that the case was a major factor in New York City's 1975 budget meltdown. John Kelly, acting on behalf of New York residents receiving financial assistance either under the federally assisted program for Families with Dependent Children or under New York State's home relief program, challenged the constitutionality of procedures for notice and termination of such aid. Although originally offering no official notice or opportunity for hearings to those whose aid was scheduled for termination, the State of New York implemented a hearing procedure after commencement of Kelly's litigation. The decision answered questions that had been unresolved in the previous Supreme Court cases of '' Rudder v. United States'' and ''
Thorpe v. Housing Authority of Durham Thorpe is a variant of the Middle English word '' thorp'', meaning hamlet or small village. Thorpe may refer to: People * Thorpe (surname), including a list of people with the name Places England *Thorpe, Cumbria * Thorpe, Derbyshire * Thorpe ...
''. The cases involved questions of denial of tenancy or eviction in governmental housing projects. It has been noted that the precarious financial status of those in poverty may preclude an extensive litigation process despite the decision. The
abstention doctrine An abstention doctrine is any of several doctrines that a United States court may (or in some cases must) apply to refuse to hear a case if hearing the case would potentially intrude upon the powers of another court. Such doctrines are usually invo ...
presupposes the adequacy of state process to protect constitutional rights. Poor people may lack the funds to pursue a court hearing process. One solution has been the use of a
preliminary injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in par ...
, which preserves the status quo while the litigation proceeds.LaFrance, ibid. p. 511


See also

*
Administrative Procedure Act (United States) The Administrative Procedure Act (APA), , is the United States federal statute that governs the way in which administrative agencies of the federal government of the United States may propose and establish regulations and it grants U.S. federa ...
*
Due Process Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual pers ...
*
Redistributive change Redistributive change is a legal theory of economic justice in the context of U.S. law that promotes the recognition of poverty as a classification, like race, ethnicity, gender, and religion, that should likewise draw extra scrutiny from the courts ...
*''
Perry v. Sindermann ''Perry v. Sindermann'', 408 U.S. 593 (1972), was a United States Supreme Court decision affecting educational case law involving tenure and due process. Facts Sindermann was a teacher at several schools in the state college system of the State ...
'', 408 U.S. 593 (1972) *'' Mathews v. Eldridge'', 424 U.S. 319 (1976)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldberg V. Kelly United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court United States civil due process case law United States administrative case law 1970 in United States case law American Civil Liberties Union litigation Social Security lawsuits