Dandridge v. Williams

The states have the right to regulate the absolute amount of aid received by a family regardless of size or determined need and the regulation was not inconsistent with the Social Security Act nor violative of the Equal Protection Clause.

In connection with its participation in the Federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, the state of Maryland imposed, through administrative regulation, a maximum limit on the total amount of aid which any one family unit could receive. The appellants, who had large families, and whose standards of need as computed by the state substantially exceeded the maximum amount of aid which they received under the regulation, brought suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. They argued that Maryland's maximum grant regulation was in conflict with the Federal Social Security Act. The appellants also argued that the regulation violated their equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

A three-judge District Court was convened and held that the regulation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case then went to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the lower court. In an opinion written by Justice Stewart, expressing the views of five members of the court, it was held that the maximum-grant regulation was not inconsistent with the Social Security Act and did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Justices Black and Burger concurred with the decision. They relied upon the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare's determination that the regulation was consistent with the Social Security Act.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Douglas said that the maximum-grant regulation was inconsistent with the terms and purposes of the Social Security Act. Douglas added that he would not find it necessary to decide upon the equal protection issue. Justices Marshall and Brennan also held that the maximum-grant regulation was inconsistent with the Social Security Act, but added that such regulation was invalid under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.