The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a federal law that denies disability benefits to residents of Puerto Rico. Here's why. Full story:
The Supreme Court on Thursday said Congress is not required to extend federal disability benefits to residents of Puerto Rico, finding that denying the payments, which are by law available only to residents of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, does not violate the Constitution.against the bid by Puerto Rico residents to receive equal treatment under the Supplemental Security Income program, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivering the opinion for the majority.
But in her dissent, Sotomayor, who is Puerto Rican, called it"utterly irrational" to deny SSI benefits to Puerto Rico residents because they don't pay enough in taxes, given the purpose of the program, and said Congress' decision to deny them a social safety net it provides to nearly all other U.S. citizens is"especially cruel given those citizens' dire need for aid.
"The decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Vaello Madero on the Supplemental Security Income program proves once again that the territorial status of Puerto Rico is discriminatory for American citizens on the island and allows Congress to do whatever they want with us," he said in a statement.
Vaello Madero was successful in the lower courts, but the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with Kavanaugh writing that two earlier decisions from the high court dictated its result.
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