Also known as: social insurances · social security
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A government program that provides benefits to retired or disabled workers and their dependents and to surviving family members of deceased workers. The program is funded through mandatory contributions and functions as insurance against loss of income from specified life events.
Samuel Soto receives Social Security disability benefits. The agency sends written notice of proposed termination and allows him to submit a written response. After termination, Soto receives a full evidentiary hearing and obtains retroactive benefits when he prevails.
Sean Steele dies intestate. His surviving spouse Spencer Silver receives joint investment accounts and beneficiary-designated funds by reason of his death. The probate court excludes Spencer's Social Security payments when valuing her property for the augmented estate under the elective share statute.
Sebastian Santos dies before his child is born through assisted reproduction. The surviving spouse applies for Social Security survivor benefits on the child's behalf. The agency determines eligibility based on state law governing the child's status as the decedent's offspring.
In January 1993, Lauren Woodward and her husband Warren Woodward, who had been married for approximately three and one-half years and remained childless, learned that Warren had leukemia. The couple arranged for a quantity of Warren's semen to be medically withdrawn and preserved through a process known as sperm banking before he began treatment. Warren underwent an unsuccessful bone marrow transplant and died in October 1993, after which Lauren was appointed administratrix of his estate. In October 1995, Lauren gave birth to twin girls who had been conceived through artificial insemination using Warren's preserved semen. In January 1996, she applied to the Social Security Administration for child's insurance benefits under 42 U.S.C. § 402(d)(1) and mother's benefits under 42 U.S.C. § 402(g)(1). The SSA denied the claims on the ground that the twins were not the husband's children within the meaning of the Act. In February 1996, while pursuing appeals from the SSA denial, Lauren filed a complaint for correction of birth record in the Probate and Family Court against the clerk of the city of Beverly, seeking to add Warren as the father on the twins' birth certificates. In October 1996, a Probate Court judge entered a judgment of paternity based on stipulations of voluntary acknowledgment of parentage and ordered the birth certificates amended to declare Warren the children's father. An administrative law judge conducted a de novo hearing. The judge concluded that the children did not qualify for benefits because they were not entitled to inherit from Warren under Massachusetts intestacy and paternity laws. The SSA appeals council affirmed that decision. Lauren appealed to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The court certified the question regarding the inheritance rights of posthumously conceived children under Massachusetts intestacy law to the Supreme Judicial Court because the parties agreed that a determination under state law was dispositive and no directly applicable precedent existed.
View caseSantiago Sanchez receives Social Security disability benefits and later marries. The agency reduces his benefits under a statutory marriage rule. Sanchez challenges the reduction as an unconstitutional classification but the court upholds the rule as rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest.
Mr. Jobst has been disabled by cerebral palsy since his birth in 1932. He qualified for child’s insurance benefits in 1957, several months after his father died. In 1970 he married another cerebral palsy victim. Since his wife was not entitled to benefits under the federal Act, the statute required the Secretary to terminate his benefits. Mr. Jobst brought this suit to review the Secretary’s action. The District Court held that the statute violated the equality principle applicable to the Federal Government by virtue of the Fifth Amendment because all child’s insurance beneficiaries are not treated alike when they marry disabled persons. Beneficiaries who marry other social security beneficiaries continue to receive benefits whereas those who marry nonbeneficiaries lose their benefits permanently. The court held this distinction irrational. The Secretary appealed directly to this Court. Noting that Mr. Jobst and his wife had become entitled to benefits under a newly enacted statute authorizing supplemental security income for the aged, blind, and disabled, this Court remanded the case for reconsideration in the light of that program. The District Court reviewed the new program, concluded that it had no relevance to the issues presented by this case, and reinstated its original judgment. The Secretary again appealed, and the Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction. As originally enacted in 1935, the Social Security Act authorized a monthly benefit for qualified wage earners at least 65 years old. In 1939 Congress created secondary benefits for wives, children, widows, and parents of wage earners. In 1956, Congress enlarged the class of persons entitled to a child’s benefit to include those who were under a disability which began before age 18. In 1958, Congress adopted an amendment providing that marriage would not terminate a child’s disability benefit if the child married a person who was also entitled to benefits under the Act.
View caseSolomon Silver participates in an ERISA pension plan. After his death his second spouse claims survivor benefits. The first spouse's children assert community property rights to a portion of the annuity. The court holds that ERISA preempts state community property law and protects the surviving spouse's annuity.
Isaac Boggs began working for South Central Bell in 1949 and remained employed until his retirement in 1985. He was married to Dorothy Boggs from 1949 until her death in 1979, and the couple had three sons. After Dorothy died, Isaac married Sandra Boggs in 1980, and they remained married until Isaac's death in 1989. Upon retirement, Isaac received a lump-sum distribution of $151,628.94 from the Bell System Savings Plan, which he rolled over into an Individual Retirement Account worth $180,778.05 at his death. He also received 96 shares of AT&T stock from the Bell South Employee Stock Ownership Plan and a monthly annuity of $1,777.67 from the Bell South Service Retirement Program. Dorothy's will bequeathed one-third of her estate to Isaac outright along with a lifetime usufruct in the remaining two-thirds, with naked ownership passing to the sons. A 1980 Louisiana judgment of possession ascribed to Dorothy's estate a community property interest in Isaac's Savings Plan account valued at $21,194.29. After Isaac's death, Sandra began receiving a survivor annuity and other benefits. The sons filed suit in Louisiana state court claiming a portion of the retirement benefits under Dorothy's will and Louisiana community property law. Sandra then filed a declaratory judgment action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana asserting that ERISA preempts the sons' claims. The District Court granted summary judgment against Sandra. The Fifth Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
View caseSterling Dynamics pays alimony to a former spouse under a state statute that imposes the obligation only on husbands. The payer challenges the statute as a denial of equal protection. The court strikes down the gender classification because it is not substantially related to an important governmental objective.
On February 26, 1974, a final decree of divorce was entered dissolving the marriage of William Orr and Lillian Orr. The decree directed Mr. Orr to pay Mrs. Orr $1,240 per month in alimony pursuant to a settlement agreement that the parties had entered and that the Lee County Circuit Court incorporated into the decree. On July 28, 1976, Mrs. Orr initiated a contempt proceeding in the Circuit Court of Lee County, Alabama, alleging that Mr. Orr was in arrears on his alimony payments. At the August 19, 1976 hearing on the petition, Mr. Orr submitted a motion requesting that the Alabama alimony statutes be declared unconstitutional because they authorize courts to place an obligation of alimony upon husbands but never upon wives. The Circuit Court denied Mr. Orr's motion and entered judgment against him for $5,524 covering back alimony and attorney fees. Mr. Orr appealed the judgment to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, which affirmed the constitutionality of the statutes. The Alabama Supreme Court granted Mr. Orr's petition for a writ of certiorari but on November 10, 1977, without opinion, quashed the writ as improvidently granted. Mr. Orr then appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Neither Mrs. Orr nor the Alabama courts objected to the timeliness of the constitutional claim. The lower courts reached and decided the federal question on the merits.
View caseSocial insurance is a mandatory government program funded by contributions that provides benefits to retired or disabled workers and their survivors. Private pension plans are voluntary employer-sponsored arrangements that provide retirement benefits to employees.
Social Security payments are expressly excluded from the property counted toward the surviving spouse's share of the augmented estate. The statute lists homestead allowance, family allowance, exempt property, and federal Social Security payments as items that do not increase the elective share base.
Due process does not require a pre-termination evidentiary hearing. Written notice and an opportunity to respond in writing before termination, followed by a full post-termination hearing with retroactive benefits if the claimant prevails, satisfy constitutional requirements.
…last Term in Mathews v. Lucas, supra , provides especially helpful guidance. In Lucas we sustained provisions of the Social Security Act governing the eligibility for surviving children's insurance benefits. One of the statutory conditions of eligibility was dependency on the deceased wage earner. 427 U. S., at 498, and…