Constitutional challenges to SSA

[pudding man]

Greetings,

I have a Soc. Security Disability case (based on "pain") which has been in the courts for years.

By the time it reached the US Court of Appeals, I had added Constitutional challenges to certain SSA rules and practices. That court refused to consider my challenges because those issues were not put before the lower court(s).

Assuming the appeals court has valid legal basis to ignore my challenges, can anyone point me in the direction of info that could possibly enable me to present my constitutional challenges in a separate and independent civil (possibly class-action) suit?

One challenge has to do with the vagueness of the disability rules. Two others have to do with a ten-year-old "experimental" SSA program that has allowed SSA to deny benefits without any input from doctors.

I am "pro se" and "in forma pauperis".

Thanks,
Puddin'

[DemBones DemBones]

1. I wish I knew a resource for you. Have you

tried calling disability lawyers? I know they don't charge you upfront, they just take a percentage of the lump sum you get that's backdated to the date you filed your claim. I don't know more than that, no experience with them. I know someone who was denied twice, got a lawyer, went before the judge and got benefits.

If you've been denied benefits twice, you should have a lawyer.

Can you deal with getting disability first and then with the Constitutional issues later?

When you say this ten-year experiment had judged cases "without input from doctors," do you mean they won't accept input from the applicant's doctors or that they don't refer applicants to doctors they select for examination?

It's very weird in either case.

"Pain" is so hard to prove. If doctors can't find a specific cause for the pain, they tend to think it's psychosomatic.

I have considerable pain from lupus and fibromyalgia (which doctors used to think was psychosomatic; now they know that brain scans of people with fibromyalgia differ from those without fibromyalgia so it's all in our heads all right but it's literally in our brains, not our imaginations.) I have started having visual migraines, too. I know many people don't believe I have pain because on the rare occasions I am able to go anywhere, I'm feeling OK that day so naturally I look well. It kills me to hear "You look so good!" because the subtext is "How sick can you be?" So you have my sympathy and understanding and I hope you win.

A class action suit would have a lot of participants, I'm sure. Did you post this is the Disability and Chronic Disease Groups yet? You may get more help from someone there.

[pudding man]

2. My disability lawyer abandoned me ...

My disability lawyer abandoned me previous to putting the case before the US Circuit Ct. Other attorneys were "not interested" in representing me.

>Can you deal with getting disability first and then with the Constitutional issues later?

Yes. But I don't know how to (legally) do it.

>When you say this ten-year experiment had judged cases "without input from doctors," do you mean they won't accept input from the applicant's doctors or that they don't refer applicants to doctors they select for examination?

They "consider" all input from claimant's docs. Under the "experiment" they can deny any claim without having the med evidence evaluated by a qualified medical professional. In Disability Determination, they can deny without review of evidence by a doc or even a para-med.

>It's very weird in either case.
>
>"Pain" is so hard to prove. If doctors can't find a specific cause for the pain, they tend to think it's psychosomatic.

A situation that I'm familiar with (as a chronic pain patient).

>I have considerable pain from lupus and fibromyalgia (which doctors used to think was psychosomatic; now they know that brain scans of people with fibromyalgia differ from those without fibromyalgia so it's all in our heads all right but it's literally in our brains, not our imaginations.) I have started having visual migraines, too. I know many people don't believe I have pain because on the rare occasions I am able to go anywhere, I'm feeling OK that day so naturally I look well. It kills me to hear "You look so good!" because the subtext is "How sick can you be?" So you have my sympathy and understanding and I hope you win.

Thanks. I'm aware of some of the problems with recognizing, treating fibro, etc. There are all kinds of things/conditions affecting the body and mind which the medicos simply don't understand, but they don't like to admit it, and have to "say something".

My health conditions are less "esoteric": I've got testicular pain, pain from multiple hernia patches, and sciatica etc from lo-back herniated disc, DDD. SSA recognizes these as "serious", but not serious enough for disability.

It hurts to walk. It hurts to sit. It hurts to move. Etc, etc.

>A class action suit would have a lot of participants, I'm sure. Did you post this is the Disability and Chronic Disease Groups yet? You may get more help from someone there.

Disability, yes (results are posted there). Chronic Disease, no.

I'm sorta 'legally lost', don't know how to proceed in the higher courts. I have about 25 days to file a reply with the court.

Thanks,
Puddin'