Rachael M. Gorecki v. Commissioner, Social Security Administration

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• Decided: July 14, 2025
• Docket: 23-13863
• Status: Published

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 1 of 13

[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 23-13863 ____________________

RACHAEL M. GORECKI, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus COMMISSIONER, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION,

Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama D.C. Docket No. 2:22-cv-00822-AMM ____________________ USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 2 of 13

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Before NEWSOM, BRASHER, and ED CARNES, Circuit Judges. NEWSOM, Circuit Judge: Rachael Gorecki advances before us an argument that has, let’s say, made the rounds. She appeals the denial of her request for disability benefits, but embedded within her claim is a challenge to an acting agency head’s legitimacy. In particular, Gorecki contends that Nancy Berryhill, who at the relevant time was serving her sec- ond stint as the Social Security Administration’s Acting Commis- sioner, wasn’t authorized to occupy that position under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Because Berryhill’s acting service violated the FVRA, Gorecki’s argument goes, she couldn’t have properly ap- pointed the administrative law judge who denied Gorecki’s benefits application. And, to complete the chain, because the ALJ wasn’t duly appointed, the denial of Gorecki’s application was a nullity. Every court of appeals to have considered the argument that Gorecki now makes has rejected it, and so did the district court be- low. After carefully considering the issue, and with the benefit of oral argument, we join our sister circuits and affirm the district court’s judgment. I A At the outset, a bit of statutory (and constitutional) back- ground. The Constitution’s Appointments Clause requires that “Of- ficers of the United States” be appointed by the President and USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 3 of 13

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confirmed by the Senate—though it clarifies that Congress may vest the appointment of so-called “inferior Officers” in “the Presi- dent alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.” U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 2. By dint of these strictures, “the respon- sibilities of an office requiring Presidential appointment and Senate confirmation—known as a ‘PAS’ office—may go unperformed if a vacancy arises and the President and Senate cannot promptly agree on a replacement.” NLRB v. SW Gen., Inc., 580 U.S. 288, 292 (2017). “Congress has long accounted for this reality by authorizing the President to direct certain officials to temporarily carry out the du- ties of a vacant PAS office in an acting capacity, without Senate confirmation”—and the Federal Vacancies Reform Act “is the lat- est version of that authorization.” Id. at 293. Section 3345 of the FVRA prescribes who may serve as an acting officer in a PAS post. It provides that, in the event of a va- cancy, the “functions and duties of the office” may temporarily be performed either by (1) the “first assistant to the office” or (2) if the President “direct[s],” by (a) another officer who has been appointed and confirmed by the Senate, or (b) another officer or employee of the agency, subject to additional conditions not relevant here. 5 U.S.C. § 3345(a)(1)–(3). An acting officer under § 3345 serves “temporarily in an acting capacity subject to the time limitations of section 3346.” Id. § 3345(a)(2). USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 4 of 13

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The dispute here turns on the meaning of § 3346. In relevant part, that provision reads as follows: (a) Except in the case of a vacancy caused by sickness, the person serving as an acting officer as described un- der section 3345 may serve in the office— (1) for no longer than 210 days beginning on the date the vacancy occurs; 1 or (2) subject to subsection (b), 2 once a first or second nomination for the office is submitted to the Sen- ate, from the date of such nomination for the pe- riod that the nomination is pending in the Senate. Id. § 3346(a) (footnotes added). With that background, we turn to the facts. B This case is about the denial of Rachael Gorecki’s disability- benefits claim, but its resolution turns on a dispute about the law- fulness, so to speak, of Nancy Berryhill, who served as the Social Security Administration’s Deputy Commissioner for Operations during the Obama Administration. As President Obama’s second term neared its end, he issued a memorandum establishing an or- der of succession for the Social Security Administration. That

1 This 210-day period is extended to 300 days when the vacancy occurs at the

beginning of a Presidential transition. 5 U.S.C. § 3349a(b). 2 Subsection (b) provides for additional periods during which an acting officer

“may continue to serve” after a nomination for the office is rejected, with- drawn, or returned to the President. 5 U.S.C. § 3346(b). USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 5 of 13

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order made the Deputy Commissioner for Operations first in line to serve as Acting Commissioner if the offices of Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner became simultaneously vacant. See Memorandum of December 23, 2016, Providing an Order of Suc- cession Within the Social Security Administration, 81 Fed. Reg. 96,337 (Dec. 30, 2016). That eventuality materialized the day of President Trump’s first inauguration, when the Social Security Administration’s Dep- uty Commissioner (and then-Acting Commissioner) resigned— thus elevating Berryhill to Acting Commissioner. Berryhill served in that position for roughly the next 14 months—until the Govern- ment Accountability Office reported that her continued service vi- olated the FVRA’s time limits. Berryhill stepped down from the Acting Commissioner role but continued on as Deputy Commis- sioner for Operations. It’s what happened next that led to the current dispute. About a month after Berryhill vacated the Acting Commissioner post, President Trump nominated Andrew Saul to serve as Com- missioner of Social Security. Upon Saul’s nomination, Berryhill re- occupied the Acting Commissioner role—citing § 3346’s provision authorizing acting service “once a first or second nomination for the [vacant] office is submitted to the Senate.” 5 U.S.C. § 3346(a)(2). One of the acts that Berryhill took during her second stint as Acting Commissioner was to officially approve as her own the appointments of the Social Security Administration’s then-serv- ing administrative law judges. She did so in response to—and in an USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 6 of 13

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effort to comply with—the Supreme Court’s then-recent decision in Lucia v. SEC, which held that the Securities & Exchange Com- mission’s ALJs are “Officers of the United States” and thus subject to the Appointments Clause. 585 U.S. 237, 244–52 (2018). Gorecki applied for disability benefits and received a hearing before an ALJ whose appointment Berryhill had ratified during her second tenure as Acting Commissioner. The ALJ denied Gorecki’s benefits application, and the Social Security Administration’s Ap- peals Council denied review—thus rendering the decision final. Gorecki sued in federal court. As relevant here, she insisted that the ALJ had no constitutional authority to issue a decision con- cerning her benefits application. In brief, Gorecki asserted that Ber- ryhill’s ratification of the ALJ’s appointment was ineffective be- cause her second stint as Acting Commissioner contravened the FVRA’s time limits on acting service. The district court rejected Gorecki’s argument “for the reasons articulated by the only appel- late courts to rule on this issue”—two at the time. Mem. Op. 25, Dkt. No. 21. This is Gorecki’s appeal. II While Gorecki’s appeal was pending, three other courts of appeals rejected the argument she advances—bringing to five the number of circuits stacked against her position. See Gaiambrone v. Comm’r Soc. Sec., No. 23-2988, 2024 WL 3518305 (3d Cir. July 24, 2024); Rush v. Kijakazi, 65 F.4th 114 (4th Cir. 2023); Seago v. O’Mal- ley, 91 F.4th 386 (5th Cir. 2024); Fortin v. Comm’r of Soc. Sec., 112 USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 7 of 13

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F.4th 411 (6th Cir. 2024); Dahle v. Kijakazi, 62 F.4th 424 (8th Cir. 2023). We now join our sister circuits in holding that the FVRA authorized Berryhill’s second stint as Acting Commissioner. 3 A Gorecki asserts that Berryhill’s second stint violated § 3346. As she reads § 3346(a)(2), a person may serve as an acting officer while a nomination is pending only if the nomination occurred while that person was serving the initial 210-day period authorized by § 3346(a)(1). Subsection (a)(2), in other words, does nothing more than toll (a)(1)’s clock; it’s not a “spring-back” provision that allows an acting officer to leave the acting position after serving for 210 days and then return while a nomination is pending. Br. of Appellant at 8. Properly and ordinarily understood, § 3346’s plain text fore- closes Gorecki’s position. See, e.g., Wall v. Kholi, 562 U.S. 545, 551 (2011) (observing that courts should “begin by considering the or- dinary understanding” of terms not defined in the statute). Our sister circuits have convincingly explained why, and we’ll borrow liberally from their well-reasoned opinions. To recap, § 3346(a) authorizes an acting officer to serve “(1) for no longer than 210 days beginning on the date the vacancy occurs; or (2) . . . once a first or second nomination for the office is submitted to the Senate, from the date of such nomination for the

3 We review the district court’s interpretation of a statute de novo. Reeves v. Astrue, 526 F.3d 732, 734 (11th Cir. 2008). USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 8 of 13

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period that the nomination is pending in the Senate.” 5 U.S.C. § 3346(a). The key word is the disjunctive “or”—which “signals that we should give § 3346(a)(2) its ‘independent and ordinary sig- nificance,’ not read it ‘to modify’ § 3346(a)(1).” Rush, 65 F.4th at 119 (quoting Reiter v. Sonotone Corp., 442 U.S. 330, 338–39 (1979)). Accordingly, “the most natural interpretation of (a)(2) is that it au- thorizes an independent period of acting service while a nomina- tion is pending regardless of whether the nomination occurred dur- ing the (a)(1) period.” Id.; accord, e.g., Seago, 91 F.4th at 391. Fur- ther support comes from the fact that “(a)(2) delineates its own be- ginning and ending independent of (a)(1)—authorizing acting ser- vice from the date of such nomination until the nomination is no longer pending in the Senate.” Rush, 65 F.4th at 119 (citation mod- ified); accord, e.g., Seago, 91 F.4th at 391. To be sure, subsection (a)(2) “can act as a tolling provision” to (a)(1)—i.e., if and when a nomination is made during the (a)(1) period—but nothing in the text confines (a)(2) to that function. Dahle, 62 F.4th at 427 (emphasis added); accord, e.g., Seago, 91 F.4th at 391 (“[T]here is nothing in the text that says—or, arguably, even suggests—service under § 3346(a)(1) excludes someone from also serving under § 3346(a)(2).”); Rush, 65 F.4th at 121. That’s espe- cially true given that Congress knew how to create FVRA tolling provisions, and said so expressly when it wanted to do so. Subsec- tion 3346(b)(1), for example, states that if a first nomination for the office is rejected, withdrawn, or returned, “the person may continue to serve as the acting officer for no more than 210 days after the date of such rejection, withdrawal, or return.” 5 U.S.C. § 3346(b)(1) USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 9 of 13

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(emphasis added). This “indicate[s] that a period of service under § 3346(b)(1) following the termination of a first nomination must be continuous with the period of service under § 3346(a)(2) that oc- curred while the nomination was pending”—whereas, “crucially, Congress did not use the phrase ‘may continue to serve’ in § 3346(a)(2).” Rush, 65 F.4th at 120; accord, e.g., Fortin, 112 F.4th at 423. Both in what it says and leaves unsaid, § 3346’s plain text counsels that subsection (a)(2) serves an independent “spring-back” function—and thus authorized Berryhill’s second stint as Acting Commissioner. B Gorecki marshals various arguments for why subsection (a)(2) serves only a tolling function—none of which manages to dislodge the ordinary understanding of the provision’s plain text. Gorecki’s principal argument trades on § 3346(a)’s preface— which says that “the person serving as an acting officer as described under section 3345 may serve in the office” for the periods laid out in subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2). She stakes her case on “serving”— a “present participle” that, she says, dictates that an acting officer must be in the acting position under (a)(1) at the time she begins her term of office under (a)(2). Br. of Appellant at 26–27. Because Berryhill wasn’t “serving” as Acting Commissioner when President Trump nominated Andrew Saul, Gorecki contends, Berryhill couldn’t then “spring back” into the office under (a)(2). Id. at 27, 43. USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 10 of 13

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A single present participle is too thin a reed to provide mean- ingful support for Gorecki’s case, especially because the term “serv- ing” lends itself to an alternative—and better—reading. Section 3346(a)’s preface refers to a specific kind of acting officer: one “serv- ing as an acting officer as described under section 3345.” 5 U.S.C. § 3346(a). As our sister circuits have recognized, that language is properly understood “to specify that § 3346’s time limitations apply to acting officers whose authority derives from 5 U.S.C. § 3345 rather than some other statute.” Rush, 65 F.4th at 122; accord Dahle, 62 F.4th at 428; Seago, 91 F.4th at 392. And that qualification makes sense, because the FVRA itself recognizes that other statutes may provide alternative, office-specific means for filling vacancies. 5 U.S.C. § 3347; see also, e.g., 42 U.S.C. § 902(b)(4) (specifying that the Dep- uty Commissioner of Social Security shall be Acting Commissioner in the event of a vacancy in the office of the Commissioner, unless the President designates another officer of the Government as Act- ing Commissioner). 4 Gorecki also tries to use § 3346(a)’s disjunctiveness to her ad- vantage. She argues that the “or” makes subsections (a)(1) and (a)(2) mutually exclusive—thus preventing someone like Berryhill from serving for (a)(1)’s time period, stepping down, and then com- ing back under (a)(2). But “the word ‘or’ has an inclusive sense (A or B, or both) as well as an exclusive one . . . and is generally used in the inclusive sense.” Rush, 65 F.4th at 120 (citation modified).

4 In this appeal, the parties agree that Berryhill was serving as Acting Commis-

sioner pursuant to the FVRA—not this office-specific statute. USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 11 of 13

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Nothing in the statute suggests otherwise. And even Gorecki in- sists on the exclusive reading of “or” only when convenient. After all, she acknowledges that an acting officer may serve under both (a)(1) and (a)(2) if the President nominates someone during the 210- day period. There’s no textual reason why the two provisions should be read to be mutually exclusive only when doing so favors Gorecki. Gorecki separately turns to precedent, gesturing toward lan- guage in the Supreme Court’s opinion in SW General. That deci- sion dealt with a different provision of the FVRA that, under cer- tain circumstances, “prevents a person who has been nominated for a vacant PAS office from performing the duties of that office in an acting capacity.” 580 U.S. at 299; see 5 U.S.C. § 3345(b). The SW General Court ruled that this “prohibition . . . applies to anyone per- forming acting service under the FVRA,” not merely to “first assis- tants.” 580 U.S. at 299. In canvassing the statutory background, the Court briefly described the provisions relevant to this appeal— observing that “[i]n most cases, [§ 3346] permits acting service for 210 days beginning on the date the vacancy occurs; tolls that time limit while a nomination is pending; and starts a new 210-day clock if the nomination is rejected, withdrawn, or returned.” Id. at 296 (citation modified). Seizing on the Court’s summary, Gorecki insists that subsec- tion (a)(2) serves only to “toll[]” subsection (a)(1)’s 210-day limit. Br. of Appellant at 50. But again, Gorecki makes too much of too little—the Court’s drive-by remark in SW General can’t bear the USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 12 of 13

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weight that Gorecki assigns it. And even if this one dictum were dispositive, it still wouldn’t contravene our interpretation. That’s because, as already noted, subsection (a)(2) can operate as a tolling provision: “When a nomination occurs during the initial 210-day period, the nomination does toll (a)(1)’s time limitation.” Rush, 65 F.4th at 122. It’s just that it doesn’t have to—and, notably, “[t]he SW General Court expressly caveated that its description applied in most cases.” Id.; accord Dahle, 62 F.4th at 428. But nothing the Court said in SW General “foreclose[s] the existence of two independent periods of acting service” under (a)(1) and (a)(2). Fortin, 112 F.4th at 423 (citation modified). Finally, Gorecki appeals to purpose. In her telling, Congress enacted the FVRA in order to incentivize “timely presidential sub- missions of nominations” and to “minimiz[e] [] the period during which acting officials serve”—goals that she asserts only her inter- pretation advances. Br. of Appellant at 20 (citation modified). The foremost problem for Gorecki is that purpose can’t overwrite ordinary understanding. See Jimenez v. Dep’t of Homeland Sec., 119 F.4th 892, 911 (11th Cir. 2024) (“When the statute is clear, our analysis ends with its plain text.”). And in any event, Gorecki fails to show how her reading better promotes Congress’s sup- posed goal. Under § 3346’s correct reading, the President does in- cur a “penalty” if he fails to nominate an officer during (a)(1)’s ini- tial period: The acting officer must step down, leaving the position vacant. Only when the President makes a nomination does (a)(2) allow the acting officer to return, at which point the ball is in the USCA11 Case: 23-13863 Document: 54-1 Date Filed: 07/14/2025 Page: 13 of 13

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Senate’s court. So, unsurprisingly, the statute’s text advances its supposed objective just as well as Gorecki’s preferred reading. See Rush, 65 F.4th at 123. * * * In sum, the FVRA’s plain text confirms what five other cir- cuits have already held: Section 3346 authorized Nancy Berryhill to serve her second stint as the Social Security Administration’s Acting Commissioner—and to ratify the appointment of the ALJ who denied Gorecki’s benefits application. III For the reasons explained above, we AFFIRM the district court’s judgment. AFFIRMED.