On 6/11/73, a Federal District Court held unconstitutional the alien residence requirements of the law (see HI 00805.005 A.2.), and ordered SSA not to enforce them. Pursuant to the court order, SSA enrolled otherwise eligible aliens who did not meet these residence requirements. On 6/1/76, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and stated that these requirements were constitutional.

Claims allowed under the District Court's order constituted erroneous awards of SMI entitlement which warranted the application of equitable relief as set out in HI 00805.210.