The Court rejected on Thursday a request to allow residents of Puerto Rico to claim benefits under the main disability insurance program of the federal government, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI). in English), ruling that the Constitution does not require Congress to offer such payments to residents of Puerto Rico, even though persons born there are United States citizens.
Efforts to expand to Puerto Rico the benefits of the federal program for disabled, elderly and blind Americans, called Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which currently provides monthly checks to approximately 7.7 million Americans and that it is aimed at people with low incomes and few resources, ruled Thursday in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the government does not violate the equal protection clause by excluding residents of Puerto Rico from Supplemental Security Income, a safety net program for people who are blind, disabled, or older than 50 years.
The only dissident of the superior court ruling was Judge Sonia Sotomayor, born in New York and from Puerto Rican descent.
The Supreme Court rules 8-1 that the government does not violate the equal protection clause by excluding Puerto Rico residents from Supplemental Security Income, a safety-net program for people who are blind, disabled, or at least 65. Sonia Sotomayor is the lone dissent.— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) April 21, 2022
The legal challenge also sparked a debate on whether the denial of Supplemental Security Income benefits to residents of Puerto Rico is rooted in racism and whether the court should also reject a series of cases that allow Congress and local governments to deny some rights to those who live in those classified as unincorporated US territories, such as Puerto Rico.
Congress has made SSI benefits available to United States citizens living in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Northern Mariana Islands, but not for those living in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa.
The brief six-page majority opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh avoided issues of race and colonialism, holding that Congress had a rational basis for denying SSI benefits to residents of Puerto Rico because they are exempt from most US taxes.
“The tax status of Puerto Rico, in particular, the fact that residents of Puerto Rico are generally exempt from most federal taxes on income, donations , inheritance and special taxes, provides a rational basis to distinguish residents of Puerto Rico from residents of the States for the purposes of the Supplemental Security Income benefit program”, wrote Kavanaugh and noted that the federal government helps finance a similar but more limited program for some low-income residents of the Caribbean island.
“When designing tax and benefit programs, it is reasonable that Congress takes into account the balance it generates l benefits and charges for residents of Puerto Rico. In doing so, Congress does not need to make a dollar-for-dollar comparison of how its tax and benefit programs are applied in states compared to territories, either individually or collectively,” Kavanaugh, an appointee for former President Donald Trump, wrote. .
However, Judge Sonia Sotomayor said that the distinction was “totally irrational” and “especially cruel”, due to the widespread poverty of the island.
“Under the current system, the jurisdiction in which an SSI recipient resides does not influence absolute in the purposes or requirements of the SSI program. For this reason alone, it is unreasonable to tie a person’s right to SSI to that person’s place of residence,” wrote Sotomayor, who was appointed by President Barack Obama.
Sotomayor further stated that he did not believe the tax arguments because people who receive SSI generally have such low incomes that they pay little or no federal tax on rent.
Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi criticized the Supreme Court ruling in a statement in Spanish and also emphasized that “the Puerto Rico’s territorial status is discriminatory against US citizens on the island” because “it allows Congress to do what it wants with us.”
“Clearly our people, particularly the most vulnerable, suffer the consequences of this unequal treatment,” said Pierluisi.
My expressions on the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in relation to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program ) pic.twitter.com/ItHZeSfgkU— Governor Pierluisi (@GovPierluisi) April 21, 2022
You may be interested in:
– The precarious situation of teachers in Puerto Rico, the lowest paid in the United States
– Governor of Puerto Rico asks in Washington for equality in the allocation of resources from the Medicaid fund
– How Puerto Rico went from being an economic miracle to becoming the territory with the highest public debt in the history of the United States