The Ohio Supreme Court has again rejected the lawsuit filed on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who say they’re owed $900 million in pandemic unemployment assistance checks. The court agreed with the state, which argued the case is moot because the federal program ended in 2021. But the attorney who filed the suit said the case is not over yet.
The lawsuit claims that Ohio law says only state lawmakers and not Gov. Mike DeWine could end $300 federal COVID unemployment checks in May 2021, four months before the feds ended it. On Friday the court said the case is moot for the second time, issuing the same ruling in November 2022. The plaintiffs went back to court, arguing the justices had ruled on a preliminary injunction related to the case and not the central issue of DeWine's power to end the program early, at the request of business groups which felt the $300 weekly checks were keeping people from looking for or taking jobs. In 2025,a Franklin County judge sided with the plaintiffs, as did the Tenth District Court of Appeals.
Marc Dann, the attorney for the plantiffs and a Democratic former Ohio attorney general, said he’ll ask the court to reconsider for an issue beyond the money.
“The governor is essentially saying he has broad executive power and the ability to ignore statutes that were very specific and enacted by the Ohio General Assembly, and we don't think that's what Ohio's constitution provides for," Dann said in an interview. “We're going to have a new governor and a new legislature, and the issue of separation of powers—where the governor's executive authority ends and the legislature’s begins—is very, very important.”
Dann estimates 300,000 Ohioans are due around $3,000 each, and he said the federal money is still available, but Ohio needs to ask for it.
"The court may be misapprehending the fact that the money that was appropriated under the CARES Act is still available to the Ohioans who were on unemployment and we're going to raise that issue with them, but we're pretty close to the end at this point," Dann said. "That's up to the Supreme Court whether they'll accept our our motion to reconsider."
The Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program ended in September 2021, with that date set by the American Rescue Plan. A total of 26 states ended their participation in the program a few months early, nearly all of which are Republican-led states.
