Ohio Supreme Court denies rehearing in $900 million COVID unemployment suit

The Ohio Supreme Court declined Oct. 28 to reconsider a lawsuit claiming more than 300,000 Ohioans are owed $900 million in federal pandemic unemployment payments. All six Republican justices denied the motion; Justice Jennifer Brunner, the court's lone Democrat, dissented. The court had previously dismissed the case as moot twice.

The lawsuit concerns a federal program that sent $300 weekly checks to people who lost work during the pandemic. At the urging of the business community, Gov. Mike DeWine ended Ohio's participation in the program in May 2021, four months before the federal government closed it. The payments were appropriated and remain available, according to the suit.

Former Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann filed the case. He said the money is available and that Ohioans need it, but that the only path forward involves the next governor choosing to pursue it. "All a governor needs to do is rescind Gov. DeWine's decision to terminate the program back in 2021," Dann said.

Dann said the estimated 300,000 people in the lawsuit would likely spend the money immediately, which he said would put nearly a billion dollars into Ohio's economy. He described the litigation as a political contest between organized interests. "Working class people were lined up on one side of this case, and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and business organizations were lined up against us," Dann said. "So it really is the haves versus the have-nots here."