Florence BUSH, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Donna E. SHALALA, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant-Appellant

CALABRESI, Circuit Judge:

This case, an ordinary social security disability claim, has been wandering up, down, and around the administrative and judicial systems for over ten years. It has now reached this Court for the first time. Because of its tortuous trajectory, we will spend a considerable amount of time describing the process that the plaintiff has received in the name of administrative efficiency and better service, those often used twin justifications of administrative decisionmaking. In the end, though, the case turns on whether a straightforward burden of evidence has been met, and…