032784P.pdf   06/16/2004  Larry Reutter  v.  Jo Anne Barnhart
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  03-2784
                          and No:  03-2849
   District of North Dakota   
   Civil case - Social Security. Social Security Administration's 
   interpretation of regulation 20 C.F.R. Sec. 404.336 to exclude the cash 
   value of household services in determining a stepparent's support for a 
   child was not inconsistent with the regulation or plainly erroneous, and 
   the district court erred by not deferring the Administration's 
   interpretation; the district court also erred in overturning the ALJ's 
   decision that the stepparent had not equitably adopted the child within the 
   meaning of 20C.F.R. Sec. 404.359, as the ALJ's finding that no equitable 
   adoption had occurred was supported by substantial evidence; plaintiff 
   failed to show 42 U.S.C. Sec. 402(d)(4) violates the equal protection 
   component of the Fifth Amendment, and the district court did not err in 
   rejecting claim that the statute discriminates against the stepchildren of 
   women. 
   [PUBLISHED] [Murphy, Author, with Fagg, Circuit Judge and 
   Goldberg, Judge of the United States Court of International Trade, sitting 
   by designation.]