430 F. Supp. 620 - Lightfoot v. Mathews’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
2 federal appellate ·
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 405 (§ 205 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 423 (§ 223 of the Social Security Act of 1935)
Relies on Hernandez v. Weinberger · Hicks v. Gardner · Leonard H. Garrett v. Elliot L. Richardson, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare · Walker v. Mathews · McLamore v. Weinberger
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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““To circumvent this lack of evidence [as to what was meant by the Administrative Law Judge when he concluded the claimant had the residual functional capacity to engage in a wide variety of light and sedentary jobs], the Government maintains that the Secretary may take administrative notice that ‘light’ jobs exist in significant numbers, and that such conclusions as are within the common knowledge and experience of ordinary men require no substantiation by a vocational expert. See, e. g., Chavies v. Finch, 443 F.2d 356 (9th Cir. 1971); McLamore v. Weinberger, 538 F.2d 572 (4th Cir. 1976). “The court is unable to agree. It might agree ‘to the extent that once evidence of capacity to do specific jobs is put forward and the jobs named are commonly known to “exist in the national economy” it is permissible for the Secretary to take notice of this fact,’ but the Secretary has not made the necessary preliminary showing of capacity to perform specific work. . “A finding of capacity to do ‘light work’ will not do. Plaintiff’s capacity to perform work must be assessed in terms of her own particular pattern of ailments and abilities, including, age, education, work experience and impairments. This requires a finding of capacity to work which is expressed in terms of specific kinds of jobs, and not simply in terms of catch-all categories susceptible to subjective construction. The court may have an idea of what it considers to be ‘light work,’ but it has no idea as to whether the Secret”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.