Leonard Carter v. Michael Astrue

MEMORANDUM

Appellant Leonard Carter appeals the district court’s judgment upholding the Commissioner of Social Security’s denial of his application for disability insurance benefits and supplemental security income under Titles II and XVI of the Social Security Act, respectively. We review de novo a district court’s judgment affirming the denial of social security benefits, and we affirm. •

I

The ALJ gave specific and legitimate reasons for discounting Dr. James Czysz’s opinion in 2008 that Carter experienced significant decompensation, low global functioning, and compromised interpersonal resilience. The ALJ noted that Dr. Czysz’s tests revealed that Carter’s cognitive functioning was within normal limits, and that his treatment notes indicated that Carter’s social difficulty with redirection improved with each encounter. Such a discrepancy between a doctor’s opinion and his other records constitutes a “clear and convincing reason for not relying on the doctor’s opinion.” Bayliss v. Barnhart, 427 F.3d 1211, 1216 (9th Cir. 2005). The ALJ properly discounted Dr. Czysz’s opinion on the basis that it was unsupported by contemporaneous objective evidence. See Tonapetyan v. Halter,…