Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/102731/townsend-vs-swank
Timestamp: 2016-10-24 21:33:57
Document Index: 132551454

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 402', '§ 406', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 406', '§ 606', '§ 601', '§ 406', '§ 402', '§ 406', '§ 401', '§ 402', '§ 1351', '§ 233', '§ 406']

Townsend Vs Swank - Citation 102731 - Court Judgment | LegalCrystal
Save as PDF Add a Tag Add a Note Semantics Visualize Townsend Vs. Swank - Court Judgment	LegalCrystal Citationlegalcrystal.com/102731CourtUS Supreme CourtDecided OnDec-20-1971Case Number404 U.S. 282AppellantTownsendRespondentSwankExcerpt:.....state in accordance with standards prescribed by the secretary) a student regularly attending a school, college, or university, or regularly attending a course of vocational or technical training designed to fit him for gainful employment."
section 402(a)(10) of the social security act provides that state participatory plans.....Judgment:
Townsend v. Swank - 404 U.S. 282 (1971)
Under § 402(a)(10) of the Social Security Act, a state participating plan under the AFDC program must provide that aid to families with dependent children shall be furnished with reasonable promptness to "all eligible" individuals. Since § 406(a)(2)(B) of the Act makes dependent 18-20-year-olds eligible for benefits whether attending a college or university or a vocational or technical training course, and Congress has authorized no limitation of eligibility standards within the age group, the Illinois program conflicts with that federal statutory provision and violates the Supremacy Clause. Pp.
404 U. S. 285
BRENNAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which DOUGLAS, STEWART, WHITE, MARSHALL, and BLACKMUN, JJ., joined. BURGER, C.J., filed an opinion concurring in the result,
Appellants, two college students and their mothers, brought this class action in the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleging that § 4-1.1 of the Illinois Public Aid Code, Ill.Rev.Stat., c. 23, § 4-1.1 (1967) and the implementing Illinois Public Aid Regulation 150 violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and, because inconsistent with § 406(a)(2)(B) of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 606(a)(2)(B), also violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. [
] Under the Illinois statute and regulation
needy dependent children 18 through 20 years of age who attend high school or vocational training school are eligible for benefits under the federally assisted Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) program, 42 U.S.C. § 601
but such children who attend a college or university are not eligible. [
] Section 406(a)(2) of
Section 402(a)(10) of the Social Security Act provides that state participatory plans submitted under the AFDC program for the approval of the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) must provide "that aid to families with dependent children shall be furnished with reasonable promptness to
individuals." (Emphasis supplied.) In
(1968), we considered whether a State participating in an AFDC program may, consistently with the Supremacy Clause, adopt eligibility standards that exclude from benefits needy dependent children eligible for benefits under applicable federal statutory standards. There was before us in that case a regulation of the Alabama Department of Pensions and Security that treated a man who cohabited with the mother of needy dependent children in or outside the home as a nonabsent "parent" within the federal statute. Since aid can be granted under § 406(a) of the Federal
392 U. S. 333
establishes that, at least in the absence of congressional authorization for the exclusion clearly evidenced from the Social Security Act or its legislative history, a state eligibility standard that excludes persons eligible for assistance under federal AFDC standards violates the Social Security Act and is therefore invalid under the Supremacy Clause. We recognize that HEW regulations seem to imply that States may to some extent vary eligibility requirements from federal standards. [
] However, the principle that accords substantial weight to interpretation of a statute by the department entrusted with its administration is inapplicable insofar as those regulations are inconsistent with the requirement of § 402(a) (10) that aid be furnished "to
individuals." (Emphasis supplied.)
Section 406(a)(2)(B) makes dependent 18-20-year-olds eligible for benefits whether attending a college or university, or attending a course of vocational or technical training. The only discretion written into the statute permits a State to determine, "in accordance with standards prescribed by the Secretary," whether a particular student, without regard to whether his attendance is at a college or vocational school, is a student "regularly attending" a
school. [
] This particularization of the area of state authority is itself cogent evidence that Congress did not also authorize the States to limit eligibility to students attending vocational school.
Nor is there anything in the legislative history of the evolution of § 406(a)(2)(B) to support appellees' argument. [
] That history does show that, whenever Congress
The original Social Security Act provided aid only to dependent children under the age of 16. 49 Stat. 629. A 1939 amendment extended aid to children age 16-17 "regularly attending school," 53 Stat. 1380. The States were not, however, required to extend their AFDC programs to the 16-17-year age group.
H.R.Rep. No. 728, 76th Cong., 1st Sess., 28-29 (1939). But if a State chose to do so, not a word in the legislative history suggests that it might limit its choice to students attending schools selected by the State, and exclude children of the age group attending other schools.
In 1956, Congress deleted the school attendance requirement and provided for benefits for all dependent children of the 16-17 age group. 70 Stat. 850. The Senate Report on this bill stated that the bill would "
Federal sharing in assistance to such children" and also that the bill would "
some additional needy children eligible
H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 2936, 84th Cong., 2d Sess., 42 (1956). Significantly, nothing in the legislative history of that change indicates that the States were at liberty to continue to limit eligibility to 16-17-year-olds attending school. [
Moreover, the Report notes that one of the purposes of the extension was to bring AFDC in line with the Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance provisions of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 401
Under that program an insured's child is eligible for insurance benefits if he is a full-time student under 22 years of age, and under § 402(d)(7) this includes a student attending a college or university. S.Rep. No. 404 attributed to the provision under both programs a purpose to
S.Rep. No. 404,
at 147. This theme carried through the Conference Committee Report:
H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 682, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., 69 (1965). [
(1969). Notwithstanding the view of the majority of the District Court, 314 F.Supp. at 1088-1089, we think there is a serious question whether the Illinois classification can withstand the strictures of the Equal Protection Clause. The majority justified the classification as designed to attain the twin goals of aiding needy children to become employable and self-sufficient, and of insuring fiscal integrity of the State's welfare program. We doubt the rationality of the classification as a means of furthering the goal of aiding needy children to become employable and self-sufficient; we are not told what basis in practical experience supports the proposition that children with a vocational training are more readily employable than children with a college education. And a State's interest in preserving the fiscal integrity of its welfare program by economically allocating limited AFDC resources may not be protected by the device of adopting eligibility requirements restricting the class of children made eligible by federal standards. That interest may be protected by the State's "undisputed power to set the level of benefits. . . ."
* Together with No. 70-5032,
Alexander et al. v. Swank, Director, Department of Public Aid of Illinois, et al.,
Appellant Georgia Townsend is the sole support of Omega Minor, her only child. Mrs. Townsend, who is disabled, received AFDC benefits for herself and her daughter from 1953 through 1960. Thereafter she received an AFDC grant for Omega, and benefits for herself under the Aid to the Disabled provisions of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1351
In September, 1966, Omega enrolled in junior college. Two months later, a Cook County welfare officer notified Mrs. Townsend that Omega's monthly AFDC payment would be canceled as of January, 1967. While Mrs. Townsend's disability payments were increased to meet her own needs, the loss of AFDC benefits resulted in a reduction of $47.94 per month in family income. Again, the only reason given was the failure to comply with the Illinois statute and regulation.
HEW's so-called "Condition X" embodied in a regulation found in 45 CFR § 233.10(a)(1)(ii), 36 Fed.Reg. 3866:
HEW, Handbook of Public Assistance Administration, pt. IV, 4210 (1962); Note, Welfare's "Condition X," 76 Yale L.J. 1222 (1967).
HEW Handbook,
3, pt. IV, "Green Sheets," G-3220 (1965);
H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 682, 89th Cong., 1st Sess., 69-70 (1965).
cites sections of the Social Security Act as supporting Illinois' contention that its college-vocational school distinction is authorized. For example, the United States refers to § 406(a), which originally defined "dependent child" to include a child living with his "father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister, stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother, stepsister, uncle, or aunt." 49 Stat. 629. A statement by Senator Harrison during debate on this provision, 79 Cong.Rec. 9269, is said to establish that the States were not required to extend assistance for every relative listed in the section. Section 407(b) is also cited as explicitly reserving to the States a choice whether to participate in certain parts of the AFDC program. But these are express authorizations to depart from federal eligibility standards; there is no express authorization in this case.
HEW, Handbook of Public Assistance Administration,
3, pt. IV, "Green Sheets," G-3220 (1965).
I concur in the result reached by the Court, but add this brief comment. In dealing with these cases -- and the other AFDC cases on the Court's docket -- it seems appropriate to keep clearly in mind that Title IV of the Social Security Act governs the dispensation of federal funds and that it does no more than that. True, Congress has used the "power of the purse" to force the States to adhere to its wishes to a certain extent; but adherence to the provisions of Title IV is in no way mandatory upon the States under the Supremacy Clause. The appropriate inquiry in any case should be, simply, whether the State has indeed adhered to the provisions and is accordingly entitled to utilize federal funds in support of its program.
Cf. Rosado v. Wyman,
397 U. S. 420
(1970). I agree that the answer to that inquiry here must be in the negative; I therefore concur in the result reached by the Court.