It’s a question that’s lingered for years: did Gov. Mike DeWine have the authority to end the federal pandemic assistance program in June 2021 before it was set to end three months later, as several Republican-led states did? A group of 300,000 Ohioans have sued the state, saying they’re owed $900 million in federal funds from the FPUC program. The Ohio Supreme Court will decide.
The justices had dismissed the workers' claims in 2022 as moot. 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.
Solicitor General Mathura Sridharan only got a good morning greeting out to the justices to start her argument on Wednesday when she was asked why the case isn’t moot since the FPUC program ended in 2021. Sridharan said it is.
"This case is moot. The program expired in 2021. This court said so in 2022. it's been almost four years after that, a full presidential administration later. This case is quintessentially moot," Sridharan said. “I would be happy if the court would just simply put an end to the years of litigation and the wasted judicial resources, as well as attorney resources, litigating a case that simply has no point.”
But Andrew Engel, representing the 300,000 claimants, said DeWine couldn’t unilaterally end the FPUC program offering $300 weekly checks early in Ohio—state lawmakers needed to.
"The funds that we're talking about remain available at the Department of Labor. Congress appropriated them without this fiscal year limitation," Engel said. "That only means that the money need not be spent in the the current budgets cycle, that the money is appropriated and set aside for its intended use until otherwise reappropriated by Congress."
"So you think the court can tell the executive branch that they have to go back into business and take that money?" asked Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy.
"They have to go ask, because we believe that the governor lacked the legal authority to withdraw from FPUC program when he did," Engel replied.
Sridharan said the claimants are relying on a letter from 2021 that says the federal funds are still there, which she doubts.
"I'm skeptical that the funds are still available on there," Sridharan said, adding that the source of the plaintiffs' claim that the funds are still available is "a letter from 2021 about rejoining the program to obtain available funds. That does nothing to explain how almost five years later, funds would be available for a program that has expired with on its own terms."
The justices heard the first case involving the FPUC program payments in May 2022, and ruled the case moot in November 2022. But it took more than three years for the case to get back to the Ohio Supreme Court. So it's unclear when a decision could be delivered.
