Claudia Frost v. Caspar Weinberger, as Secretary of United States Department of Health,education and Welfare

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge:

This appeal displays a new facet in the developing law of due process with respect to administrative action by the welfare state. Whereas such controversies have typically involved disputes between the Government on the one hand and a citizen or class of citizens on the other, here the ultimate conflict is between two categories of citizens and the Government’s interest is to pay the right one. Before reaching the problem of what due process requires in this context, we must traverse a procedural thicket.

I. The Statutory Background and the Regulations in Controversy.

Pur…