By Mark Sherman
Associated Press
The Supreme Court upheld the differentiated treatment of residents of Puerto Rico, ruling that Congress had the right to exclude them from a benefit program that is available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In an 8-1 vote, the highest court held that making Puerto Ricans ineligible for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which provides benefits to older, disabled and blind Americans, it did not unconstitutionally discriminate against them.
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico,
was the only one who opposed.
Writing for the court, Judge Brett Kavanaugh said the court was bound by a pair of earlier rulings that had already upheld the federal law that created SSI and excluded Puerto Rico and other US territories from it.
Congress later added the Mariana Islands.
Supreme Court Building in Washington DCPatrick Semansky / AP
Puerto Rico has been a US territory since the Spanish-American War of 1898, and its residents are US citizens. They can vote in primaries, but not in presidential elections, and have limited representation in Congress.
Many also do not pay federal income tax.
Kavanaugh wrote that
"just as not all federal taxes are extended to residents of Puerto Rico
, neither are all federal benefit programs extended to its residents."
In dissent, Sotomayor responded: "In my opinion, there is no rational basis for Congress to treat needy citizens living anywhere in the United States so differently from others. To hold otherwise, as the court does , is irrational and antithetical to the very nature of the SSI program and to the equal protection of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution.
I respectfully dissent."
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The decision outraged many in Puerto Rico, including Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, who said statehood is the only solution to Puerto Rico's second-class status.
"The decision...confirms once again that Puerto Rico's territorial status is discriminatory to US citizens on the island and allows Congress to do what it wants with us," he said in a statement.
"It's going to bring a new perspective to court."
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Pierluisi pointed out that Puerto Rico also receives unequal treatment when it comes to Medicaid, Medicare and other federal programs.
For her part, Jenniffer González, a representative of Puerto Rico in Congress and a member of Pierluisi's pro-statehood party,
described the exclusion as "incredible discrimination"
that keeps more than 300,000 people in extreme poverty.
José Luis Vaello-Madero, the Puerto Rican resident at the center of the court case, began receiving SSI payments after suffering a series of strokes while living in New York.
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The payments continued in his New York bank account even after he returned to Puerto Rico.
When she notified the Social Security Administration, the payments stopped and the government then sued to recover more than $28,000 that she said she was not entitled to.
Lower courts agreed with Vaello-Madero, ruling that Puerto Rico's exclusion from the SSI program is unconstitutional.
In a similar case in Guam, a federal judge recently ruled that residents of that Pacific island should also be able to collect SSI.
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The Justice Department first filed its appeal of a ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit during the Trump administration, but held the case even after President Joe Biden took office.
The Biden administration has said it supports changing the law to extend SSI payments to Puerto Rico.
He included a provision in his
Build Back Better
proposal to make residents of US territories eligible for SSI payments, but the legislation is stalled in Congress.
A separate program,
Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled
, covers residents of the territories, but has stricter eligibility requirements and pays less generous benefits than SSI. .
