Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/404/282/case.php
Timestamp: 2019-06-18 22:51:13
Document Index: 444989165

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

TOWNSEND V. SWANK, 404 U. S. 282 (1971) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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, post, p. 404 U. S. 292. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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. [Footnote 1] Under the Illinois statute and regulation chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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 et seq., but such children who attend a college or university are not eligible. [Footnote 2] Section 406(a)(2) of chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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 all eligible individuals." (Emphasis supplied.) In King v. Smith, 392 U. S. 309 (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 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Thus, King v. Smith 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. [Footnote 3] 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 all eligible individuals." (Emphasis supplied.) King v. Smith, 392 U.S. at 392 U. S. 333 n. 34. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Nor is there anything in the legislative history of the evolution of § 406(a)(2)(B) to support appellees' argument. [Footnote 5] That history does show that, whenever Congress chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
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 "permit Federal sharing in assistance to such children" and also that the bill would "make some additional needy children eligible chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
In sum, when application of AFDC was extended to a new age group -- in 1939 to 16-17-year-olds and in 1964 to 18-20-year-olds -- Congress took care to make explicit chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U. S. 618, 394 U. S. 641 (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. . . ." King v. Smith, 392 chanroblesvirtualawlibrary