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

"The Nation's basic commitment has been to foster
the dignity and well-being of all persons within its borders."

New York City, 1968. John Kelly is disabled and unemployed. Angela Velez is a single parent with four children. Both get welfare payments. Suddenly, with no warning, the state cuts off their benefits. Kelly is destitute. Velez is unable to pay rent, and evicted from her home.

They join with others on public assistance, and claim that before losing their benefits they have the right to a hearing. In 1970, the Supreme Court agrees. "From its founding," writes Justice William Brennan, "the Nation's basic commitment has been to foster the dignity and well-being of all persons within its borders. We have come to recognize that forces not within the control of the poor contribute to their poverty... Welfare, by meeting the basic demands of subsistence, can help bring within the reach of the poor the same opportunities that are available to others to participate meaningfully in the life of the community. At the same time, welfare guards against the societal malaise that may flow from a widespread sense of unjustified frustration and insecurity. Public assistance, then, is not mere charity, but a means to 'promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.' The same governmental interests that counsel the provision of welfare, counsel as well its uninterrupted provision to those eligible to receive it; pre-termination evidentiary hearings are indispensable to that end."

For more...

AMENDMENT 14 Due Process and Equal Protection of the Law

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. [^].

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