Court Opinion

ID: 9814440
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 23:51:29.509039+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:40:27.839726
License: Public Domain

RYAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Since I believe that there is substantial evidence in the record supporting the Commissioner of Social Security’s finding that there were a sufficient number of security camera monitor jobs available to the claimant, I respectfully dissent.
Substantial evidence “is generally defined as such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support the conclusion.” Her v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec., 203 F.3d 388, 389 (6th Cir.1999). “In deciding whether to affirm the Commissioner’s decision, it is not necessary that this court agree with the Commissioner’s finding, as long as it is substantially supported in the record.” Rogers v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec., 486 F.3d 234, 241 (6th Cir.2007). Even if there is substantial evidence in the record to support a different conclusion, the Commissioner’s decision “must stand if the evidence could reasonably support the conclusion reached.” Her, 203 F.3d at 390.
In my judgment, our role is to decide whether the record made at the administrative hearing contains evidence adequate to support the Administrative Law Judge’s conclusion. See id. It is not within this reviewing court’s proper authority to locate evidence it thinks ought to have been taken into account by a better informed, more thoroughly prepared expert witness, and to hold that the expert’s failure to consider this court’s more favored data effectively nullified the “reliability” of the expert’s opinion, rendering the entire body of otherwise “substantial evidence” suddenly insubstantial.
*617Notwithstanding that the vocational expert might have relied upon different or more current job listings data, I believe the testimony of the vocational expert, as it is set out in the record, is relevant evidence that adequately supports the Administrative Law Judge’s conclusion that there were a sufficient number of camera monitor jobs available to the claimant. Consequently, I would affirm the decision of the district court.
I respectfully dissent.