In the case of Sullivan, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Hudson in 1988, the United States Supreme Court ruled that federal courts do not have jurisdiction to review decisions made by the Social Security Administration (SSA) during its administrative process until a final decision has been made by the SSA. The plaintiffs had sought judicial review of an SSA decision denying them disability benefits before exhausting all their administrative remedies. They argued that they were entitled to court intervention because they believed there was bias within the agency's adjudicatory process which violated their due process rights under Fifth Amendment. However, Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote for a unanimous court stating that Congress intended claimants to exhaust all available administrative remedies before seeking judicial review as per Section 205(g) of Social Security Act; thus rejecting plaintiffs' argument about alleged procedural deficiencies being sufficient grounds for immediate judicial intervention.

In the dissenting opinion for Sullivan, Secretary of Health and Human Services v. Hudson, Justice Scalia argued that the majority's decision to allow judicial review of a federal agency's procedural rules was an overreach of judicial power. He contended that such reviews should be limited only to cases where there is a constitutional question or when Congress has explicitly provided for it in statute. In this case, he believed neither condition had been met. Furthermore, he expressed concern about the potential implications of allowing courts to interfere with administrative procedures on such a broad scale without clear legislative direction or constitutional necessity.