Cite as: 509 U. S. 292 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
concedes that the District Court's remand order in this case was entered pursuant to sentence four.2 He argues, however, that a district court proceeding under that provision need not enter a judgment at the time of remand, but may postpone it and retain jurisdiction pending completion of the administrative proceedings. That argument, however, is inconsistent with the plain language of sentence four, which authorizes a district court to enter a judgment "with or without" a remand order, not a remand order "with or without" a judgment. See Sullivan v. Finkelstein, 496 U. S. 617, 629 (1990). Immediate entry of judgment (as opposed to entry of judgment after postremand agency proceedings have been completed and their results filed with the court) is in fact the principal feature that distinguishes a sentence-four remand from a sentence-six remand. See Melkonyan, supra, at 101-102.
Nor is it possible to argue that the judgment authorized by sentence four, if it includes a remand, does not become a "final judgment"—as required by § 2412(d)—upon expiration of the time for appeal. If that were true, there would never be any final judgment in cases reversed and remanded for further agency proceedings (including those which suffer that fate after the Secretary has filed the results of a sentence-six remand). Sentence eight of § 405(g) states that "[t]he judgment of the court"—which must be a reference to a sentence-four judgment, since that is the only judgment authorized by § 405(g)—"shall be final except that it shall be
script of the additional record and testimony upon which his action in modifying or affirming was based."
2 Sentence-six remands may be ordered in only two situations: where the Secretary requests a remand before answering the complaint, or where new, material evidence is adduced that was for good cause not presented before the agency. See § 405(g) (sentence six); Melkonyan v. Sullivan, 501 U. S. 89, 99-100, and n. 2 (1991); cf. Sullivan v. Finkelstein, 496 U. S. 617, 626 (1990). The District Court's April 4, 1989, remand order clearly does not fit within either situation.
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