Mary Alma Tierney v. Richard S. Schweiker, Secretary of Health and Human Services. Ava P. Trahan v. Donald T. Regan, Secretary of the Treasury

MIKVA, Circuit Judge:

Prompted by allegations of widespread abuse in the Supplemental Security Income (Benefits) program, the Social Security Administration (SSA) implemented a new policy to verify the income and assets of SSI recipients. Specifically, through a mass mailing distributed in May 1982, SSA asked each of four million former and current Benefits recipients to sign a consent form that would allow SSA to obtain copies of otherwise confidential tax return information maintained by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This tax return information would then be checked against the strict…