Article on Benefits to After-Born Children

Mark Strasser (Capital University Law School) recently published an article entitled, Capato, Art, and the Provision of Benefits to After-Born Children, Michigan State Law Review 985-1001 (2013). Provided below is the abstract from SSRN:

In Astrue v. Capato ex rel B.N.C., the United State Supreme Court held that the twins conceived and born after their father’s death in that case were not entitled to Social Security benefits. While the decision might simply be thought to involve deference to an agency’s interpretation of a statute, the decision is nonetheless regrettable because the Court failed to take advantage of an opportunity to provide needed guidance on whether, why, or how Social Security benefits should be based on state intestacy laws in cases involving after-born, ART children. Such guidance would have been especially welcome considering that Congress when passing the Social Security Act did not have ART children in mind, and providing benefits to such children would have been in accord with some of the purposes behind the Act’s passage.