Thresher v. Astrue’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Here the ALJ did suggest that [the claimant] was not functionally mentally retarded, but the ALJ’s failure to reference § 12.05 and, in particular, Listing 12.05C makes it unclear whether the ALJ came to grips with the specific requirements of that section when she issued her decision. We do not doubt that an ALJ can decide that an IQ score is invalid. The regulations’ inclusion of the word “valid” in Listing 12.05C makes the ALJ’s authority clear. But here, while the ALJ pointed to the level of [the claimant’s] functioning, she did not find that the score was invalid, and the listing does not speak to functioning — it speaks only to the IQ score itself. Thus, we remand to the Commissioner for clarification regarding the nature of the considerations applied at step 3 and, particularly, precisely what was decided and why.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 695 F. Supp. 2d 1049 - Gomez v. Astrue