ALJ Error Disability Benefits.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

United States Supreme Court

Case Name: Willie Earl Carr, et al., v. Andrew M. Saul, Commissioner of Social Security

Case No.: 19-1442; 20-105

Focus: ALJ Error Disability Benefits

When the Social Security Administration (SSA) denies a claim for disability benefits, a claimant who wishes to contest that decision in federal court must first seek a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). The petitioners here did just that: They each unsuccessfully challenged an adverse benefits determination in ALJ proceedings, and they now ask for judicial review. Specifically, petitioners argue that they are entitled to new hearings before different ALJs because the ALJs who originally heard their cases were not properly appointed under the Appointments Clause of the U. S. Constitution. The question for the Court is whether petitioners forfeited their Appointments Clause challenges by failing...