Richardson v. Belcher/Dissent Douglas

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, dissenting.

I would affirm the judgment of the District Court. The statutory classification upheld today is not 'rationally based and free from invidious discrimination.' Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 487, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 1162, 25 L.Ed.2d 491. It is, in my view, violative of the Federal Government's obligation under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause to guarantee to all citizens equal protection of the laws. Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497, 74 S.Ct. 693, 98 L.Ed. 884.

Eligibility for social security disability benefits is premised upon a worker's having attained 'insured' status in the course of an employment 'covered' by the Act. It is undisputed that Raymond Belcher, and through him his wife and two minor children, had so qualified in 1968 when he broke his neck while employed by the Pocahontas Fuel Co. in Lynco, West Virginia. Indeed, his application for such benefits has been approved, and the benefits authorized and paid.

Section 224 of the Social Security Act, however, requires that these benefits be substantially reduced solely because Belcher also receives state workmen's compensation payments. It is said that the duplication of benefits impedes rehabilitation, and may lead to a cutting back of state workmen's compensation programs. Ante, at 83.

The rehabilitation goal does not explain the special treatment given to workmen's compensation beneficiaries. There are many other important programs, both public and private, which contain provisions for disability payments affecting a substantial portion of the work force, and which do not require an offset under the Social Security Act.

Thus, had Belcher's supplemental disability payment come from a Veterans' Administration program, a Civil Service Retirement Act or Railroad Retirement Act annuity, a private disability insurance policy, a self-insurer, a voluntary wage-continuation plan, or the proceeds in an action in tort arising from the disabling injury, there would have been no reduction in his social security benefits. The offset under § 224 applies only to federal social security disability beneficiaries also receiving workmen's compensation payments, a group which in 1965 totaled only 1.4% of all social security disability beneficiaries. Yet, of the 849,000 disabled workers who in 1965 received social security disability benefits, over sixteen percent also received overlapping veteran's benefits, and almost fourteen percent received benefits from private insurance maintained under the auspices of an employer or a union. Congress is, of course, not required to address itself to all aspects of a social problem in its legislation. It must, however, justify the distinctions it draws between people otherwise similarly situated. Rehabilitation incentives are not a rational justification for the discrimination worked by § 224. If it is at all rational to argue that duplicating payments 'impede rehabilitation,' the argument must apply to all such payments regardless of their source. The nature of the supplemental benefit has no relation to a worker's incentive to return to work.

Nor is § 224 designed to stem a possible 'erosion' of state workmen's compensation plans. As Mr. Justice MARSHALL points out, post, at 263, § 224 itself provides that there shall be no reduction of federal social security benefits with respect to those state workmen's compensation plans which themselves offset federal social security benefits against state payments. Thus, the statute encourages States concerned about overcompensation of disabled workers to cut back on their own programs. But the 'rational basis' discerned by the majority requires the statute to have precisely the opposite purpose.

I would affirm the judgment of the District Court.