Court Opinion

ID: 9657286
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:18:50.513952+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:10:40.102116
License: Public Domain

McENTEE, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
While I have great respect for the scholarly nature of the majority’s opinion and while I am sympathetic to the policy considerations which it reflects, I am unable to agree with the majority as to the1 significance of the legal principles at issue. Accordingly, I must dissent.
In my view, what is basically at issue here is the Congressional decision that SSI benefits are to be unavailable to anyone not located in one of the fifty states or the District of Columbia. 42 U.S.C. § 1381 et seq. This I consider to be the real issue, rather than a citizen’s right to travel.
Given the unique relationship between the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the United States, see Examining Board v. Flores de Otero, 426 U.S. 572, 96 S.Ct. 2264, 49 L.Ed.2d 65 (1976); Fornaris v. Ridge Tool Co., 400 U.S. 41, 91 S.Ct. 156, 27 L.Ed.2d 174 (1970),1 I do not believe that Congress is required to extend any one particular financial benefit to those located in the Commonwealth.2 While I might well have voted to extend SSI benefits to Puerto Rico had I been a member of the legislative branch, as a judge I am unable to perceive any mandate — constitutional or otherwise— that this must be done.
As for the majority’s argument based on the right to travel, I would simply state that I have found no case which extends the rationale of Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 89 S.Ct. 1322, 22 L.Ed.2d 600 (1969)3 to *1114travel other than between two or more of the fifty States or the District of Columbia. And I do not believe that the present status of the complex relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States constitutes an adequate predicate for a judicial extension of that rationale to the instant case.
I recognize that this case raises very important issues, and I am deeply impressed by the cogency with which the majority articulates its position. Nevertheless, for the reasons stated, I am unable to subscribe to their views, and I respectfully dissent.

. See also 48 U.S.C. § 731 et seq.; Caribtow Corp. v. OSHRC, 493 F.2d 1064 (1st Cir. 1974) and cases cited. See generally de Passalacqua, The Constitutional and Political Status of the Island of Puerto Rico, 10 Rev. de Derecho Puertorriqueño 11 (1970); Leibowitz, The Applicability of Federal Law to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 56 Geo.L.J. 219 (1967); Magruder, The Commonwealth Status of Puerto Rico, 15 U.Pitt.L.Rev. 1 (1953).

. Nor in fact has Congress done so historically. See Leibowitz, supra note 1, at 269-70.
It should be noted that the unicity of Puerto Rico’s relationship to the United States does not always work to the island’s disadvantage. In the tax area, for example, Puerto Rico is the beneficiary of certain quite favorable legislative provisions. See, e. g., 26 U.S.C. §§ 933, 7653. See also Hector, Puerto Rico: Colony or Commonwealth?, 6 N.Y.U.J.Int’l L. & Pol. 115, 135 & nn.110 & 112 (1973).

. See also Memorial Hospital v. Maricopa County, 415 U.S. 250, 254-55 & nn.7-8, 94 S.Ct. 1076, 39 L.Ed.2d 306 (1974); United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745, 86 S.Ct. 1170, 16 L.Ed.2d 239 (1966). See generally Comment, A Strict Scrutiny of the Right to Travel, 22 U.C.L. A.L.Rev. 1129 (1975).