>>17869203Could you go more into the dubious legal precedents and where you think the argument failed in the legal process?
>>17869195It "does". So I put it in quotes because Goldberg was a case which had its jurisprudence better defined AFTER the case was actually decided. Goldberg v. Kelly was in 1970. In the case they didn't actually talk about "property interests" all that much. But they DID talk a lot about procedural due process - given "notice and a hearing" before loss of "life, liberty, property". Subsequent to Goldberg v. Kelly comes Board of Regents v. Roth in 1972. In it, the court pokes at the idea that procedural due process needs to make sure the interests fall under either life, liberty, or property.
In doing so, they look BACK at Goldberg v. Kelly and explain it as such:
"The Fourteenth Amendment's procedural protection of property is a safeguard of the security of interests that a person has already acquired in specific benefits. These interests—property interests—may take many forms. Thus, the Court has held that a person receiving welfare benefits under statutory and administrative standards defining eligibility for them has an interest in continued receipt of those benefits that is safeguarded by procedural due process. Goldberg v. Kelly"
"Property interests, of course, are not created by the Constitution. Rather they are created and their dimensions are defined by existing rules [...] Thus, the welfare recipients in Goldberg v. Kelly, supra, had a claim of entitlement to welfare payments [...] Just as the welfare recipients' 'property' interest in welfare payments was created and defined by statutory terms, so the respondent's 'property' interest in employment at Wisconsin State University-Oshkosh was created and defined by the terms of his appointment."
You can see it absolutely creates a property interest under procedural due process. Which is why I dislike it. Congressional issues alone don't resolve the constitutional tie-in. :(