## Facts

- New York City and State officials administered public assistance programs, including Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Home Relief.
- Recipients alleged their benefits were terminated, or threatened with termination, without timely notice and a hearing before benefits stopped.
- The existing process provided informal pre-termination review and a post-termination “fair hearing.”
- A three-judge federal district court held that due process required an evidentiary hearing before termination of benefits.
- The New York City Commissioner of Social Services appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether welfare benefits for eligible recipients constitute a protected interest under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
2. Whether due process requires a pre-termination evidentiary hearing before welfare benefits are discontinued.
3. What minimum procedures due process requires at any pre-termination hearing.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that due process applies to termination of welfare benefits because such benefits are statutory entitlements for qualified recipients.
- The Court held that, given the severe risk of harm from erroneous termination of subsistence benefits, due process requires a pre-termination evidentiary hearing rather than post-termination review alone.
- The Court required procedures that reduce the risk of erroneous deprivation while allowing an administratively workable hearing process.

## Legal Principles

- Statutorily conferred welfare benefits for qualified recipients constitute a protected interest that cannot be terminated without due process.
- When termination threatens loss of essential means of living, due process generally requires a pre-deprivation evidentiary hearing.
- Minimum pre-termination procedures include:
  - Timely and adequate notice stating the reasons for the proposed termination.
  - An effective opportunity to be heard orally and to present evidence and arguments.
  - Opportunity to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses.
  - Permission to retain counsel (without a requirement that the government appoint counsel).
  - An impartial decisionmaker who did not participate in the determination under review.
  - A statement of reasons for the decision and an indication of the evidence relied upon.

## Conclusion

The Court held that because welfare assistance for eligible recipients is a protected statutory entitlement and termination can cause immediate deprivation of basic necessities, the Fourteenth Amendment requires a pre-termination evidentiary hearing with core procedural safeguards before benefits may be cut off.


Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254 (1970)