ABSTRACT
In Goldberg v. Kelly, the US Supreme Court in a six–three vote invalidated a New York procedure for terminating welfare payments. The New York practice did not provide welfare recipients sufficient opportunity to present evidence challenging termination of their benefits. Residents of New York who received financial aid under the federal program Aid to Families with Dependent Children and had that aid terminated filed suit on the grounds that the procedure used in New York violated their right to due process. The district court held that only a pretermination evidentiary hearing would satisfy constitutional due process and rejected the argument of the welfare officials that the combination of the existing posttermination hearing and the informal pretermination review was sufficient. Justice William J. Brennan further concluded that welfare benefits were a matter of statutory entitlement for persons qualified to receive them, and procedural due process was applicable to their termination.
