Sullivan v. Zebley, 493 U.S. 521 (1990), was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court involving the determination of childhood Social Security Disability benefits.

On July 12, 1983, plaintiffs, including Zebley, filed a class action complaint challenging the Social Security Administration (SSA) listing-only policy of evaluating childhood disability claims.

Community Legal Services of Philadelphia represented the plaintiffs; Richard Weishaupt argued the case and Jonathan Stein was co-lead counsel, Sheldon Taubman was co-counsel.

[3] In doing this, the Third Circuit found that SSA's interpretation of "comparable severity" was too restrictive and preclusive of an individualized assessment of children's functional impairments.

By a 7 to 2 margin, the Supreme Court found SSA's listing-only methodology for determining SSI child claims inconsistent with the statutory standard of "comparable severity" set forth in the Social Security Act.