Puerto Rico Residents Entitled to SSI Disability Benefits

The blanket exclusion of Puerto Rico residents from receiving Supplemental Security Income disability benefits is an unconstitutional deprivation of their right to equal protection, the First Circuit ruled.

Singling out Puerto Rico residents “is clearly irrelevant to the stated purpose of the program, which is to provide cash assistance to the nation’s financially needy elderly, disabled, or blind,” the court said.

SSI provides benefits to low-income individuals who are older than sixty-five, blind, or disabled. The Social Security Act requires recipients live in one of the fifty states, D.C., or the Northern Mariana Islands.

José Luis Vaello-Madero received SSI ...