First Circuit Rules That Puerto Rico Residents Can Be Paid SSI

     The First Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an opinion in the case of U.S. v. Vallelo-Madero holding that it is an unconstitutional denial of equal protection to refuse to pay Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits to qualified residents of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico residents are citizens of the United States but since the beginning of the program ineligible for SSI. If they move to a state, however, they can get the benefit.

     The background of the case is interesting. Vallelo-Madero was receiving SSI while living in New York but then moved to Puerto Rico. Apparently, he didn't tell Social Security he had moved but they somehow found out later. It looks as if they did a criminal investigation but eventually decided not to bring charges. Instead, they did something they rarely do, they filed a civil suit to try to collect the overpayment. It was at this point that he raised the defense that his SSI never should have stopped so there wasn't an overpayment.

     Social Security can now ask all the judges of the First Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case en banc or they can ask the Supreme Court to hear the case or they can give up and start paying SSI to all eligible applicants living in Puerto Rico. I don't think this Administration is going to pay SSI to a bunch of brown skinned people if it can avoid it. However, if Joe Biden is elected President in November and this case is still pending as I expect it will be, he may decide to accept the First Circuit opinion and start paying SSI to eligible people living in Puerto Rico.