Joseph A. Maher v. Commissioner of Social Security Administration

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
JOSEPH A. MAHER,
Plaintiff - Appellant,
v.
COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL
SECURITY ADMINISTRATION,
Defendant - Appellee.
No. 11-15553
D.C. No. 1:09-cv-01887-DLB
MEMORANDUM*
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of California
Dennis L. Beck, Magistrate Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted June 15, 2012
San Francisco, California
Before: HUG, RAWLINSON, and IKUTA, Circuit Judges.
Appellant Joseph Maher appeals the district court’s judgment affirming the
decision of the Commissioner of Social Security (Commissioner) denying his
application for disability insurance benefits. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28
U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm the district court.
FILED
JUL 12 2012
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

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2
The administrative law judge’s (ALJ’s) finding that Maher presented with a
severe mental impairment at step two of the sequential analysis did not compel
inclusion of those findings in the residual functional capacity (RFC) determination
at step five of the analysis.
In Hoopai v. Astrue, 499 F.3d 1071, 1076 (9th Cir. 2007), we held “that
satisfaction of the step-two threshold requirement that a claimant prove her
[mental] limitations are severe is not dispositive of the step-five determination of
whether the non-exertional limitations are sufficiently severe such as to invalidate
the ALJ’s exclusive use of the grids.” This holding forecloses Maher’s argument
because the grids provide for broad categories of limitations rather than
incorporation of specific mental limitations. See id. If a finding of severe mental
impairment at step two does not compel inclusion of specific mental limitations at
all, a fortiori, it does not compel the ALJ to include any specific mental limitations
in the RFC or to present them to the vocational expert for the purposes of
determining whether the claimant can perform jobs existing in significant numbers
in the national economy.
AFFIRMED.

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