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The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Congress could continue to exclude Puerto Ricans from a program that helps people with disabilities and low-income blind people.
The decision was 8 to 1, with the only dissident being Judge Sonia Sotomayor, whose parents were born on the island.
The Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, is defending Congress’ right to exclude Puerto Ricans from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program without violating the Constitution’s promise of equal protection. But the president called for the law to be changed.
The exclusion means that about 300,000 people on the island who would qualify for the benefit cannot receive it.
“The limited question before this court is whether, according to the Constitution, Congress must expanding the extra income for the security of Puerto Rico residents to the same extent as residents of the United States. Judge Brett M. Cavanaugh writes about the majority. “The answer is no.”
Congress has devised a unique combination of burdens and benefits for Puerto Ricans, Cavanaugh noted, including less tax liability.
“In Puerto Rico tax the status – in particular the fact that Puerto Ricans are usually exempt from most federal taxes on income, gifts, property and excise duties – provides a rational basis for distinguishing Puerto Rican residents from state residents in the same way for added security purposes incomes Benefits program, “he wrote.
He added that Congress is free to extend the benefits of Puerto Rican SSI if it decides, noting that Biden supports such legislation.
The case involves Jose Luis Vaelo Madero, who received SSI payments in 1985 in New York. Payments continued in his bank account, even when he moved to Puerto Rico in 2012. But the money stopped when the government learned of his new address. He also tried to recover more than the $ 28,000 he received.
The benefits of SSI are available to U.S. citizens living in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands. Along with Puerto Ricans, those in the US Virgin Islands and Guam are excluded.
Sotomayor said a program designed to help the poorest citizens should not depend on location.
“In my opinion, there is no rational basis for Congress to treat needy citizens living somewhere in the United States so differently from others,” she wrote.
She rejected the government’s argument about the tax burden, which the majority accepted. “While it is true that Puerto Ricans are usually exempt from certain federal taxes, this distinction does not provide a rational basis for distinguishing between them and other SSI recipients,” she wrote. As the program helps the poor, the elderly and people with disabilities, “SSI recipients pay little, if any.”
The case is USA against Vaelo Madero.
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