Ohio Must Seek $900 Million in Forwent Covid Aid, Court Says

Ohio’s governor must work to get an estimated $900 million from the federal government for expanded unemployment benefits the state forwent during the Covid-19 pandemic, a state appeals court ruled Monday.

When the Ohio Supreme Court in 2022 dismissed an appeal in the case of a denial of a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction—which it did in a one-sentence order that said “this cause is dismissed, sua sponte, as moot"—it didn’t mean the whole case should be tossed, the Ohio Court of Appeals, 10th District said. The state high court’s ruling came more than a year after the expanded unemployment program ended.

“If the Supreme Court had wanted to provide legal reasoning that necessarily implied the mootness of the entire case, or if it had wanted to issue a mandate for the trial court to dismiss the entire case on remand, it could have done so,” Judge M. Shawn Dingus (D) wrote for himself and Judges Laurel Beatty Blunt (D) and Carly M. Edelstein (D).

The decision is part of a string of litigation dating back to Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) 2021 decision to withdraw from the program two months early.

A February ruling from a Columbus-area trial judge said DeWine shouldn’t have withdrawn early, passing up on an extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits on top of what the state paid. The governor must work with the US Labor Department to get those benefits back for those who were unemployed at the time and lost out, as Ohio law mandates that the state secure all available money under the program, the judge said.

The appeals court, in affirming the lower judge’s ruling, also rejected arguments that the case is moot because it’s unlikely Ohio can still obtain the money and that DeWine’s administration didn’t actually have a duty to get the money.

Marc E. Dann of DannLaw, who represents plaintiffs who lost out on the expanded unemployment, called the decision “a victory for the rule of law and for the thousands of Ohioans who continue to struggle with the economic fallout of COVID-19.”

A DeWine spokesman declined comment.

The plaintiffs are also represented by Zimmerman Law Offices PC. The state defendants are represented by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.

The case is Ohio ex rel. Bowling v. DeWine, Ohio Ct. App., 10th Dist., No. 25-AP-000191, 6/30/25.