Topete-Jasper

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA ELIZABETH T., Case No.: 23-cv-0125-AGS-VET

Plaintiff,

ORDER ACCEPTING REPORT &

v. RECOMMENDATION IN PART,

REJECTING IT IN PART, AND

Martin O’MALLEY, Commissioner of AFFIRMING ALJ’s DECISION Social Security, (ECF 21) Defendant.

This case tests the outer limits of Appointments Clause error. For Social Security appeals, the established boundaries are well defined: First, the decision of an unconstitutionally appointed administrative law judge (ALJ) is invalid and must be reversed. Lucia v. SEC, 585 U.S. 237, 241, 251 (2018). Second, that ALJ is disqualified from rehearing the overturned case—even if the appointment defect has been cured—on pain of another reversal. Cody v. Kijakazi, 48 F.4th 956, 961–62 (2022). Neither of those sins occurred here. Rather, in this Social Security disability proceeding, an ALJ “partially” relied on medical opinions that implicate …