By: Derek Hawkins//June 26, 2019//
United States Supreme Court
Case Name: Ricky Lee Smith v. Nancy A. Berryhill
Case No.: 17-1606
Focus: ALJ Error – Disability Benefits
The Social Security Act allows for judicial review of “any final decision . . . made after a hearing” by the Social Security Administration (SSA). 42 U. S. C. §405(g). Petitioner Ricky Lee Smith was denied Social Security benefits after a hearing by an administrative law judge (ALJ) and later had his appeal from that denial dismissed as untimely by the SSA’s Appeals Council—the agency’s final decisionmaker. This case asks whether the Appeals Council’s dismissal of Smith’s claim is a “final decision . . . made after a hearing” so as to allow judicial review under §405(g). We hold that it is.
Reversed and remanded
Dissenting:
Concurring: