William O. Douglas

“ The effect is to shift a greater proportion of the support of large families from the State to the Federal Government as the family size increases. Indeed, if the size of the family should exceed 11, the State would succeed in transferring the entire support burden for the family to the Federal Government, and even make a 'profit' in the sense that it would receive more from the Federal Government with respect to the family than the $250 maximum that is actually paid to that family. It is impossible to conclude that Congress intended so incongruous a result. ”

“ For it is perfectly obvious that limitations upon assistance cannot reasonably operate as a work incentive with regard to those who cannot work or who cannot be expected to work. In this connection, Maryland candidly notes that 'only a very small percentage of the total universe of welfare recipients are employable.' The State, however, urges us to ignore the 'total universe' and to concentrate attention instead upon the heads of AFDC families. Yet the very purpose of the AFDC program since its inception has been to provide assistance for dependent children. ”

“ Nor is the distinction upon which the deprivation is here based-the distinction between large and small families-one that readily commends itself as a basis for determining which children are to have support approximating subsistence and which are not. ”

“ In short, not only has the State failed to establish that there is a substantial or even a significant proportion of AFDC heads of households as to whom the maximum grant regulation arguably serves as a viable and logical work incentive, but it is also indisputable that the regulation at best is drastically overinclusive since it applies with equal vigor to a very substantial number of persons who like appellees are completely disabled from working. ”

“ A second effect of the maximum family grant regulation further demonstrates its inconsistency with the federal program. As administered in Maryland, the regulation serves to provide a strong economic incentive to the disintegration of large families. This is so because a family subject to the maximum regulation can, merely by placing the ineligible children in the homes of other relatives, receive additional monthly payments for the support of these additional dependent children. ”

“ The Maryland AFDC program in its basic structure operates uniformly with regard to all needy children by taking into account the basic subsistence needs of all eligible individuals in the formulation of the standards of need for families of various sizes. However, superimposed upon this uniform system is the maximum grant regulation, the operative effect of which is to create two classes of needy children and two classes of eligible families: those small families and their members who receive payments to cover their subsistence needs and those large families who do not. ”

“ The House bill required 'a meeting of all need as determined by the State' as a condition to including 'protective payments' within the definition of 'aid to families with dependent children.' The Senate Finance Committee changed that requirement, however, by an amendment which authorized federal funding of 'protective payments' if the state-determined need of individuals with respect to whom such payments were made was fully met by their assistance payment and other income or resources. ”

“ The aid provided through the AFDC program has always been intended for the individual dependent children, not for those who apply for the aid on their behalf. The Senate Committee on Finance, in its report on the Social Security Bill of 1935, stated this purpose in the following terms:
'The heart of any program for social security must be the child. All parts of the Social Security Act are in a very real sense measures for the security of children. ”

“ At the same time, however, the State itself has recognized that the vast proportion of these mothers are in fact unemployable because they are mentally or physically incapacitated, because they have no marketable skills, or, most prominently, because the best interests of the children dictate that the mother remain in the home. ”

“ The language of § 401 and the language of the Court in King both reflect a concern that the Federal Government not require a state legislature to appropriate more money for welfare purposes than it is willing and able to appropriate. The use of the matching formula in § 403 of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 603 (1964 ed., Supp. IV) , supports this deference to the fiscal decisions of state legislatures. The question of a State's authority to pay less than its standard of need, however, has never been expressly decided. ”

“ Consequently, the State may not, in the provision of important services or the distribution of governmental payments, supply benefits to some individuals while denying them to others who are similarly situated. ”

“ Yet, as a general principle, individuals should not be afforded different treatment by the State unless there is a relevant distinction between them and 'a statutory discrimination must be based on differences that are reasonably related to the purposes of the Act in which it is found.' Morey v. ”

“ The Report of the House Committee on Ways and Means stated:
'Particularly in families with small children, it is necessary for the mother or another adult to be in the home full time to provide proper care and supervision. ”

“ Rather, in this case Maryland, with the encouragement and assistance of the Federal Government, has elected to provide assistance at a subsistence level for those in particular need-the aged, the blind, the infirm, and the unemployed and unemployable, and their children. ”

“ This provision, we believe, would give the States an additional incentive to make effective use of the constructive programs which the bill would establish. Moreover, this limitation on Federal matching will not prevent any deserving family from receiving aid payments. The States would not be free to keep any family off the rolls to keep within this limitation because there is a requirement in the law that requires equal treatment of recipients and uniform administration of a program within a State. ”

“ No. 628, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., 17 (1935) , the original goals of the AFDC program are stated as follows: 'With no income coming in, and with young children for whom provision must be made for a number of years, families without a father's support require public assistance, unless they have been left with adequate means or are aided by friends and relatives. * * * Through cash grants adjusted to the needs of the family it is possible to keep the young children with their mother in their own home, thus, preventing the necessity of placing the children in institutions. ”

“ Assuming, arguendo, that a State need not appropriate sufficient funds to pay all eligible AFDC recipients the full amount of their need, it does not follow that it can distribute such funds as it deems appropriate in a manner inconsistent with the Social Security Act. ”

“ A system of individual maximums may, or may not, be combined with a family maximum, or, alternatively, a family maximum may be imposed in the absence of individual maximums. See generally HEW, State Maximums and Other Methods of Limiting Money Payments to Recipients of the Special Types of Public Assistance, Oct. ”

“ The task of statutory construction requires more. It requires courts to look to the context of that reference, and to the history of relevant legislation. In the present context, the reference to maximum grants was necessary to preserve the integrity of the cost-of-living adjustment required by the bill. No further significance can legitimately be read into that reference.
Appellants also rely on § 108 (a) of Pub.L. 87-543, 76 Stat. 189, a provision of the Public Welfare Amendments of 1962 that amended § 406 of the Act. ”