The Supreme Court's decision in Goldberg v. Kelly (1970) was legally significant because it established that welfare recipients have a constitutional right to a pre-termination evidentiary hearing before their benefits can be cut off.
The Court ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires this procedural protection, as termination of welfare benefits can deprive recipients of the means to obtain basic necessities of life. The Court analyzed the competing interests of the recipients, the state, and the decision-maker, and concluded that the risk of erroneous deprivation was too high to allow welfare terminations without a pre-termination hearing. This landmark decision extended important due process protections to welfare recipients, recognizing that their benefits were a form of property interest that could not be taken away without appropriate procedural safeguards.