Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-303_6khn.pdf
Page Number: 41.0

8 

UNITED STATES v. VAELLO MADERO 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

While it is true that residents of Puerto Rico typically are
exempt  from  paying  some  federal  taxes,5  that  distinction 
does not create a rational basis to distinguish between them
and other SSI recipients.  By definition, SSI recipients pay
few if any taxes at all, as the First Circuit correctly recog-
nized below: “[B]y its very terms, only low-income individu-
als lacking in monetary resources are eligible” for SSI.  956 
F. 3d, at 27.  In fact, to qualify for SSI, recipients must have
an income well below the standard deduction for single tax
filers.  Ibid.  It is “antithetical to the entire premise of the
program”  to  hold  that  Congress  can  exclude  citizens  who 
can scarcely afford to pay any taxes at all on the basis that 
they do not pay enough taxes.  Ibid. 

In  some  cases,  it  might  be  “reasonable  for  Congress  to
take account of the general balance of benefits to and bur-
dens  on”  citizens  when  deciding  eligibility  for  benefits. 
Ante, at 5.  That is not a rational basis for this classification, 
however, because SSI is a means-tested program of last re-
sort for the poorest Americans who lack the means even to 
pay taxes.  Residents of Puerto Rico who would be eligible
for  SSI  are  like  SSI  recipients  in  every  material  respect:
They are needy U. S. citizens living in the United States. 

—————— 

5 Both  the  District  Court  and  the  Court  of  Appeals  below  recognized 
that citizens who reside in Puerto Rico pay several of the same types of 
federal taxes as citizens who reside in a State.  See 356 F. Supp. 3d, at 
215,  n. 9;  956  F. 3d  12,  24–26  (CA1  2020).    The  Court  of  Appeals  ex-
plained that each year from 1998 to 2006 (when an economic recession 
set in), residents of Puerto Rico contributed in aggregate over $4 billion 
to the Federal Treasury, a sum larger than the contributions by residents 
of  Vermont,  Wyoming,  and  several  other  States.    Id.,  at  24.  Even  be-
tween 2016 and 2018, during the recession and despite several natural 
disasters, residents of Puerto Rico still contributed between $3 and $4 
billion per year to the Treasury.  Id., at 24–25.  Those contributions came 
in the form of “federal income taxes by residents of Puerto Rico on income 
from  sources  outside  Puerto  Rico,”  “the  regular  payment  of  federal  in-
come taxes by all federal employees in Puerto Rico,” and “the full Social
Security,  Medicare,  and  Unemployment  Compensation  taxes  that  are 
paid in the rest of the United States.”  Id., at 25 (footnote omitted).