## Facts

- Gertrude Thomas lived with Joseph Thomas from 1938 until his death in 1985; they had ten children and lived in Georgia (a common-law marriage state) and later New York.
- In 1978, Gertrude applied for Social Security wife’s insurance benefits, representing a 1943 marriage date; Joseph submitted a signed statement describing Gertrude as his wife and asserting his earlier marriage had ended.
- After Joseph’s death, Gertrude’s benefits were converted to widow’s insurance benefits.
- Another claimant, Janie Thomas, applied for widow’s benefits and produced a 1918 marriage certificate to Joseph, asserting their marriage was never dissolved.
- The Social Security Administration concluded Joseph’s marriage to Janie remained valid, making Gertrude not Joseph’s lawful widow for benefit purposes.
- Gertrude sought benefits as a “deemed” widow under 42 U.S.C. § 416(h)(1)(B), but the agency found her ineligible because she had not gone through a marriage ceremony; her relationship was treated as common-law.
- Gertrude challenged the statute’s exclusion of invalid common-law marriages from deemed-spouse status as a violation of equal protection under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

## Issues

1. Whether 42 U.S.C. § 416(h)(1)(B), which grants deemed-spouse status to good-faith participants in invalid ceremonial marriages but not invalid common-law marriages, violates equal protection as applied to a claimant in a long-term common-law union.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit affirmed dismissal of Gertrude Thomas’s complaint and upheld the Secretary’s denial of widow’s benefits.
- The court applied rational-basis review because the classification involved social welfare legislation and did not implicate a suspect class or fundamental right.
- The court held Congress could rationally limit deemed-spouse status to invalid ceremonial marriages because ceremonies typically generate reliable, administrable evidence (e.g., licenses and certificates) and reduce fraud and uncertainty.
- The court concluded Congress could also rationally adopt a uniform federal criterion to avoid burdens associated with evaluating informal unions across differing state laws.
- The court rejected the argument that hardship to claimants just outside the statutory category renders the classification unconstitutional.

## Legal Principles

- Social Security benefit classifications are reviewed under a highly deferential rational-basis standard unless they involve a suspect class or fundamental right.
- A statutory line is constitutional if it is rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest, even if it produces harsh outcomes at the margins.
- Congress may use administrability and evidentiary reliability as legitimate grounds for limiting eligibility in a nationwide benefits program.
- Under 42 U.S.C. § 416(h)(1)(B), deemed-spouse protection is tied to participation in a marriage ceremony undertaken in good faith, and need not extend to invalid common-law marriages.

## Conclusion

The court held that limiting deemed-widow status to good-faith participants in invalid ceremonial marriages is rationally related to legitimate administrative and evidentiary objectives, so excluding invalid common-law marriages does not violate equal protection, and the denial of benefits was affirmed.


Thomas v. Sullivan, 922 F.2d 132 (2d Cir. 1990)