Astrue v. Capato Argument Recap: Old Law, New Technology, and Social Security Benefits

Abstract

In this, the second in a series of SCOTUSblog postings discussing the 2012 Supreme Court case of Astrue v. Capato, Professor Knaplund summarizes counsel's oral arguments before the Court. The arguments focused on Congressional intent in enacting the Social Security Act, and specifically the meaning of the word "child" in the statute. How the word "child" is defined directly affects the outcome of the case, in which the legal issue is whether a "postmortem conception" child (which is conceived using the decedent's genetic material) is eligible to receive the decedent's Social Security benefits.

Keywords: Supreme Court, child, parent, Social Security, benefit, decedent, postmortem, conception, conceive, state law, federal law, federalism, assisted reproduction, ART