And the RUIA, in turn, allows any person “aggrieved by a final decision under subsection (c) of this section” to “obtain a review of any final decision of the Board.” 45 U.S.C. § 355(f).Here, the Court concluded that the Board’s refusal to reopen Salinas’s 2006 application was a “final decision of the Board” for two reasons: First, this decision “was the ‘terminal event’ in the Board’s administrative review process.” When the Board denied Salinas’s appeal, that was the end of the administrative road for Salinas.

Salinas filed a petition for review in the Fifth Circuit, which was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, with the Fifth Circuit joining the majority of circuits in holding that federal courts cannot review the Board’s refusal to reopen a prior benefits determination. The Court today reversed, holding that the Board’s refusal to reopen a prior benefits determination is a “final decision” within the meaning of 45 U.S.C. §355(f), which grants judicial review “of any final decision of the Board.” Justice Sotomayor delivered the Court’s opinion, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Breyer, Kagan, and Kavanaugh.

On Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in three cases:Barr v. Political Consultants, et al., No. 19-631: Whether the government-debt exception to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s automated-call restriction violates the First Amendment, and whether the proper remedy for any constitutional violation is to sever the exception from the remainder of the statute.Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management, No. 18-540: Whether the Eighth Circuit erred in holding that Arkansas’s statute regulating pharmacy benefit managers’ drug-reimbursement rates, which is similar to laws enacted by a substantial majority of States, is preempted by ERISA, in contravention of this Court’s precedent that ERISA does not preempt rate regulation.Salinas v. Railroad Retirement Board, No. 19-199: Whether, under section 5(f) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, 45 U.S.C. §355(f), and section 8 of the Railroad Retirement Act, 45 U.S.C. §231g, the Railroad Retirement Board’s denial of a request to reopen a prior benefits determination is a “final decision” subject to judicial review.