Goldberg v. Kelly

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Goldberg v. Kelly

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued October 13, 1969
Decided March 23, 1970


Full case name:	Goldberg, Commissioner of Social Services of the City of New York v. Kelly, et al.

Citations:	397 U.S. 254; 90 S. Ct. 1011; 25 L. Ed. 2d 287; 1970 U.S. LEXIS 80

Prior history:	Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

Holding

The Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause requires a full evidentiary hearing before a recipient of certain government benefits is deprived of such benefits.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, John Marshall Harlan II, William J. Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, Abe Fortas, Thurgood Marshall

Case opinions

Majority by: Brennan
Joined by: Douglas, Harlan, White, Fortas, Marshall
Dissent by: Burger
Dissent by: Stewart
Dissent by: Black

Laws applied

U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254 (1970), is case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause requires a full evidentiary hearing before a recipient of certain government benefits is deprived of such benefits. The Goldberg decision set the parameters for procedural due process when dealing with the deprivation of a government benefit or entitlement. The Court recognized that a person has a property interest in certain government entitlements, which require notice and a hearing before a governmental entity (either state or federal) takes away an entitlement. Governmentally provided entitlements from the modern welfare state increased substantially in the United States during the twentieth century. The Goldberg court decided that such government entitlements (e.g., welfare payments, government pensions, professional licenses), are a form of "new property" that require pre-deprivation procedural protection.

The opinion of the Court was delivered by Justice William Brennan, while dissenting opinions were filed by Justices Hugo Black and Potter Stewart and Chief Justice Warren Burger.