Due process clause trial#

The requirements of the pre-termination evidentiary hearing need not be trial-like or onerous.

Due process clause trial#

The pre-termination hearing need not be a trial or quasi-trial.The combination of an informal pre-termination review and a post-termination hearing does not suffice. Further, the welfare recipient’s interest in receiving benefits (which provide essentials for basic living) coupled with the State’s interest in making sure eligible people receive those benefits uninterrupted, clearly outweighs the burden of ferreting out people who are improperly receiving welfare benefits.Īccordingly, a pre-termination hearing is required to ensure that welfare recipients are accorded procedural due process. Procedural due process is required before such entitlements are terminated. A pre-termination hearing is required for procedural due process.įor people qualified to receive them, welfare benefits are not a privilege, but a statutory entitlement.However, the rules were amended during the suit to allow for an informal pre-termination review and post-termination hearing. They alleged that the welfare officials who administered those programs terminated, or were about to terminate, appellees from aid without prior notice or a hearing, in violation of due process.Īt the time the suit was filed, welfare officials did not provide notice or a hearing prior to the termination of benefits. Kelly Case BriefĪppellees - residents of New York City who received federal aid through the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program or New York State’s Home Relief program - brought suit in Federal District Court. The Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is violated when a State terminates welfare benefits without giving the beneficiary notice and an opportunity to be heard prior to termination. The District Court held that a pre-termination hearing is required to satisfy procedural due process.Welfare recipients sued in federal court because benefits were being terminated without recipients getting notice or a hearing prior to termination.