Shalala v. Illinois Council on Long Term Care, Inc., 529 U.S. 1, 3 (2000)

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Cite as: 529 U. S. 1 (2000)

Syllabus

case. They themselves foreclose distinctions based upon the "potential future" versus "actual present" nature of the claim, the "general legal" versus the "fact-specific" nature of the challenge, the "collateral" versus the "noncollateral" nature of the issues, or the "declaratory" versus "injunctive" nature of the relief sought. Nor can the Court accept a distinction that limits § 405(h)'s scope to claims for monetary benefits or that involve "amounts," as neither the language nor the purposes of § 405 support such a distinction. Neither McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, Inc., 498 U. S. 479, nor Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U. S. 319, supports the Council's effort to distinguish Salfi and Ringer. The Court's approval of a § 1331 suit against the Immigration and Naturalization Service in McNary rested on the different language of the immigration statute. And Eldridge was a case in which the respondent had complied with, not disregarded, the Social Security Act's special review procedures—specifically the nonwaivable and nonexcusable requirement that an individual present a claim to the agency before raising it in court. The upshot is that the Council's argument must rest primarily upon Michigan Academy. Pp. 11-15.

(c) Michigan Academy did not, contrary to the Court of Appeals' holding, modify the Court's earlier holdings by limiting § 405(h)'s scope, as incorporated by § 1395ii, to "amount determinations." That case involved the lawfulness of HHS regulations governing procedures used to calculate Medicare Part B benefits; and the Medicare statute, as it then existed, did not provide for § 405(g) review of such decisions. The Court ruled that this silence did not itself foreclose § 1331 review. In response to the argument that § 405(h) barred § 1331 review, the Court declined to pass in the abstract on the meaning of § 405(h) because that section was made applicable to the Medicare Act "to the same extent as" it is applicable to the Social Security Act by virtue of 42 U. S. C. § 1395ii. The Court interpreted that phrase to foreclose application of § 405(h) where its application would preclude judicial review rather than channel it through the agency. As limited by the Court of Appeals, Michigan Academy would have overturned or dramatically limited earlier precedents such as Salfi and Ringer, and would have created a hardly justifiable distinction between "amount determinations" and many similar HHS determinations. This Court does not normally overturn, or so dramatically limit, earlier authority sub silentio, and it did not do so here. Pp. 15-20.

(d) The Council's argument that it falls within the Michigan Academy exception because it can obtain no review at all unless it can obtain § 1331 review is unconvincing. It argues that review is available only after the Secretary terminates a home's provider agreement. But in

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