WASHINGTON D.C.: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that Congress can exclude Puerto Rican residents from receiving some federal disability benefits, known as Supplemental Security Income, available to those who live in the 50 American states.
The 8-1 opinion was written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissenting.
Supplemental Security Income is available to those living in the 50 U.S. states who are older than 65, blind or disabled, but residents of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories are excluded from receiving the benefits.
Regarding the case, Kavanaugh wrote, “In devising tax and benefits programs, it is reasonable for Congress to take account of the general balance of benefits to and burdens on the residents of Puerto Rico.”
He also noted that while Puerto Rican residents are typically exempt from most federal income, gift, estate and excise taxes, they are eligible for Social Security and Medicare.
“Just as not every federal tax extends to residents of Puerto Rico, so too not every federal benefits program extends to residents of Puerto Rico,” Kavanaugh added.
Sotomayor, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, penned the sole dissenting opinion, stating, “Equal treatment of citizens should not be left to the vagaries of the political process.”
“Because residents of Puerto Rico do not have voting representation in Congress, they cannot rely on their elected representatives to remedy the punishing disparities suffered by citizen residents of Puerto Rico under Congress’ unequal treatment,” she wrote.
Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said, “The core holding is that Congress is allowed to withhold certain federal benefits from Americans who live in territories like Puerto Rico so long as it has any rational basis for doing so, and that no special justification is required.”
‘That makes it far easier for Congress, a body in which the territories are not represented, to treat residents of those territories differently with those who live in the states, not just for Supplemental Security Income, but for all federal benefit programs, like Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements funded, at least in part, by taxes paid by those living in those territories,” he added.
The case involved Jose Luis Vaello-Madero, who was born in Puerto Rico in 1954 but lived in New York from 1985 to 2013. In 2012, he was found eligible after a stroke to receive the disability payments, which were deposited directly into his checking account.
His lawyer, Hermann Ferr, said the program was meant to replace “an uneven patchwork of programs for the disabled with a uniform standard of national support, so that poor and disabled Americans could live with dignity.”
The Biden administration had defended the exclusion, arguing that most Puerto Ricans are exempt from federal taxes, therefore, Congress could consider reduced contributions and exclude them from some disability benefits.
At oral arguments, Deputy Solicitor-General Curtis Gannon told the justices, “It is always appropriate for Congress to take account of the general balance of benefits and burdens associated with a particular federal program.”
