The U.S. Supreme Court's April 21 ruling upheld Puerto Rican's exclusion from some federal disability benefits available to state residents.
In the high court's 8-1 opinion, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the justice cited two Supreme Court precedents that he said "dictate the result here" and provided the "deferential rational-basis test" that "applies," according to an April 21 CNN article. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, issued the lone dissent.
"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," Kavanaugh wrote in the court's 43-page opinion. "In doing so, Congress need not conduct a dollar-to-dollar comparison of how its tax and benefits programs apply in the states as compared to the territories, either at the individual or collective level."
Kavanaugh cited Puerto Rico’s tax status, particularly residents' exemption from most federal income, gift, estate and excise taxes.
“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 said, according to CNN.
In her dissenting opinion, CNN reported Sotomayor argued equal treatment of U.S. 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," Sotomayor continued.
The case, U.S. vs Jose Luis Vaello-Madero, is about Puerto Rican resident Vaello-Madero's collection of disability payments following a stroke. Vaello-Madero, born in Puerto Rico in 1954, lived in the U.S. between 1985 and 2013 and was declared eligible for disability payments, which were deposited directly into his bank account. He continued to collect disability payments after he moved to Puerto Rico in 2013 until it came to the government's attention that he now lived in a territory. Vaello-Madero sued after he was told his benefits would be discontinued and that he had to repay more than $28,000. His attorneys argued excluding Puerto Ricans from disability payments violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment.
In a preview of the case posted in November on the high court's blog, James Romoser said state governments cannot deny anyone equal protection under the law and that the Supreme Court previously has interpreted the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause contains similar equality principles applying to the federal government.
"In general, the principle prohibits the government from treating people unequally without a good reason," Romoser wrote in the blog post.
