The Ohio $900 million unemployment lawsuit is a class action brought by roughly 300,000 laid-off workers who say Governor Mike DeWine had no legal authority to pull the state out of a federal pandemic unemployment program ten weeks early in 2021, cutting off an extra $300 a week in benefits. The case, State ex rel. Bowling v. DeWine, reached the Ohio Supreme Court for a second time on May 20, 2026, and a decision is pending.1
What the Lawsuit Is About
The Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, created by the CARES Act in March 2020, added $300 per week on top of regular state unemployment benefits, with the federal government paying for both the benefits and the administrative costs. It was scheduled to run nationwide through September 6, 2021.
On May 13, 2021, Governor DeWine announced that Ohio would stop participating effective June 26, 2021, citing concerns that the supplement was discouraging people from returning to work. Twenty-five other states made similar decisions that summer.
Three Ohio residents, led by Candy Bowling, filed a class action in Franklin County later that year. Bowling had lost her job at an airplane-parts inspection company after air travel collapsed during the pandemic and was eligible for the extra benefit during the weeks the governor cut short. The suit now covers roughly 300,000 workers.
The Legal Argument
The claimants’ central argument rests on Ohio Revised Code § 4141.43(I), which they say required the state to cooperate with the federal government to “secure all available advantages” under federal unemployment programs. On that reading, only the Ohio General Assembly could have withdrawn Ohio from the program; the governor could not do so on his own.
In 2023, after the litigation began, the Ohio legislature amended the cooperation statute to clarify that the director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services may cease participation in optional federal programs and that the governor has the authority to withdraw. The courts below have treated that amendment as inapplicable to the 2021 decision at issue.
The Franklin County Court of Common Pleas ruled on February 12, 2025, that DeWine should have taken “all action necessary” to reinstate the program and ordered the state to seek the withheld funds from the U.S. Department of Labor. The Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed on June 30, 2025, in a unanimous opinion by Judge Shawn Dingus, which rejected the state’s argument that the dispute was moot and held that the possibility of recovering the funds was enough to keep the case alive.
Where the Case Stands Now
The Ohio Supreme Court heard oral arguments on May 20, 2026, in the case docketed as OA25055. Justice Pat DeWine, the governor’s son, recused himself, and Judge Kristy S. Wilkin of the Fourth District Court of Appeals sat in his place.
Ohio Solicitor General Mathura Sridharan told the court the case is “quintessentially moot” and that continued litigation wastes judicial resources over a program that expired in 2021. She argued the lower court rulings “trample a trifecta of the other branches’ powers” by defying the Supreme Court’s earlier dismissal of a related injunction request, the legislature’s 2023 statutory changes, and the governor’s executive discretion.
Attorney Andrew Engel, for the claimants, argued that the governor lacked authority to end participation without legislative approval and that the federal money remains available because Congress appropriated it “without fiscal year limitation.” Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy questioned the necessity of the proceedings and noted that the governor had followed the federal rule allowing states to terminate participation with 30 days’ written notice. Other justices pressed on whether the funds are actually still available to be distributed.
The court is expected to take months to issue a decision.
Is the $900 Million Actually Still Available?
Whether the money is still there is the practical question sitting underneath the legal one, and the two sides give opposite answers.
The claimants point to a September 3, 2021, email from Jim Garner, then the Department of Labor’s Administrator of the Office of Unemployment Insurance, which told states they could retroactively re-enroll claimants and should “continue to accept applications and issue payments as if there had been no effective termination.” In a July 2024 declaration, Garner affirmed that the email “continues to represent the position of the Department,” and DOL officials reiterated in April 2025 that the guidance was still valid.
Attorneys for Governor DeWine argue that the Garner email set an October 6, 2021, deadline for states to request rescission of their termination notices, that Ohio never made such a request, and that no mechanism exists for a state to re-enroll in a defunct program years later. Governor DeWine has said flatly that “the money is not there.”
Washington has weighed in as well. On June 9, 2025, four Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee, including Ohio Representatives Mike Carey and Max Miller, sent a letter to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer urging the Department of Labor to issue formal guidance blocking retroactive payments. They called the Garner email “informal Biden Administration guidance” and warned of “possible retroactive payments to fraudsters due to lack of documentation of eligibility.” As of the May 2026 oral arguments, the Department of Labor had not rescinded the Garner guidance.
Lawsuits challenging early benefit terminations were filed in 13 other states in 2021, including Indiana, Maryland, Texas, and Florida, and all of them were dismissed. Ohio’s case is the only one still alive.
What Workers Would Receive If the Claimants Win
If the Ohio Supreme Court rules for the claimants, the state would be ordered to request roughly $900 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to cover retroactive $300-per-week payments to eligible workers for the period between late June and early September 2021. Plaintiffs’ attorneys estimate that works out to up to $3,000 per household across roughly 300,000 people. The Department of Labor has indicated that the federal government would cover both the benefits and the administrative costs if Ohio is ordered to reverse the 2021 decision.
Even with a ruling in the workers’ favor, actual payment would depend on the Department of Labor accepting Ohio’s late request and processing the retroactive claims, which the state disputes is possible.
What Happens If the State Wins
If the court sides with the state, whether on mootness or on the merits of the governor’s authority, the case ends and no retroactive payments will be made. Workers who were cut off between June 26 and September 6, 2021, will not receive the extra $300 per week for those weeks.
Policy Matters Ohio research director Zach Schiller described the wait this way: “For five years now, Ohio workers have been in litigation limbo. These funds were necessary for Ohioans to keep their families fed and roofs over their heads.”