Ohio Chief Justice Skeptical of Effort to Obtain Covid Benefits

Ohio’s chief justice appeared skeptical Wednesday that plaintiffs seeking roughly $900 million in Covid-19-era unemployment insurance benefits that the state’s governor forwent could still press their case.

That’s because of a one-sentence order the state Supreme Court issued in 2022 that said “this cause is dismissed, sua sponte, as moot.” At the time, the plaintiffs suing Gov. Mike DeWine (R) for his early withdrawal in 2021 from a benefits program were appealing the denial of a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, but Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy (R) noted that the case wasn’t explicitly sent back to the trial ...