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Jun 25, 2018

Social Security's First Public Response To Lucia

     The Social Security Administration has issued a revision to the Emergency Message it had released on the Lucia case prior to the Supreme Court's opinion. The revision adds little other than this: "The Office of the General Counsel (OGC), in consultation with the Department of Justice, is reviewing the [Lucia] decision to determine whether, and to what extent, it may affect SSA. We expect to issue additional instructions after OGC completes its review."
     While most of us didn't think the Supreme Court would really do it, we all knew it was possible. Wouldn't you expect that there would have been some contingency planning? Of course, the White House should have been coordinating such contingency planning across all federal agencies but the current White House seems uninterested in such sort of nuts and bolts governing and is highly preoccupied with other matters.
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:52 PM, June 25, 2018

    One. The current guidance vary minimally from the predecision guidance. And two. For the love of God please stop thinking agency management will act rationally. Hasn't happened never will.

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  2. Anonymous10:40 PM, June 25, 2018

    Agency managers are supposed to add a Lucia-specific case characteristic, to make it easy for OCALJ to run metrics on how many challenges there are. I've had no challenges in two days of hearings since Lucia dropped. But Lucia doesn't apply to SSA ALJs. It's the anti-SSA suits pending in District Court that could cause trouble, two/three years from now.

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  3. Anonymous11:49 PM, June 25, 2018

    They're doing the only thing they can. Noting the argument when brought up, (probably, hopefully) seeking further guidance from an Administration that couldn't spell Social Security right given three tries, and basically daring anyone to take this to federal court and fight their way up the appeals ladder. What were they going to do, say "yep, stand by while we blow up our entire due process framework"?

    I laughed when I saw the guidance. ALJs basically have to go "yep. Noted", and AC very specifically will not even address the issue. Some call it head in the sand, but we don't even have a frigging commissioner. Or an acting commissioner. This is on Trump's people to provide answers, and if there isn't somebody nearby they can blame (usually someone that fails the paper bag test), they usually have no clue.

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