U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2020

A Ninth Circuit panel held that a claimant's prior disability determination confers no presumption of continuing disability under the Social Security Act, because the SSA's intervening, reasonable interpretation of the 1984 Reform Act's neutral-basis termination standard—expressed in its response to public comments…

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision upholding the denial of disability benefits for the period at issue. It concluded that the ALJ gave adequate reasons for discounting the physicians’ opinions, reasonably found that Ford did not meet or medically equal the relevant listings, and could rely on the…